''@Reverend_Makers'' is the third studio album by English band Reverend and the Makers, released on 18 June 2012. The album's lead single was "Bassline" and was released on 13 February 2012, via free download from the band's Facebook page. The band toured the UK following the album release, after a stint supporting

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds are an English rock band formed in 2010 as the solo moniker of former Oasis songwriter, lead guitarist, and backing vocalist Noel Gallagher. The touring band consists of former Oasis members Gem Archer (guitar ...

in the second quarter of the year. The second single, 'The Wrestler', was released on 14 May. Upon release, the album debuted at number 16 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

, three places higher than the band's second album, while the third single "Out of the Shadows" was released in August.

Recording

In the summer of 2011, the band released a track via YouTube called "Riot" in a response to the riots across England. After recruiting new members such as ex- Milburn frontman Joe Carnall, McClure released news of a slot supporting

Noel Gallagher Noel Thomas David Gallagher (born 29 May 1967) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He was the chief songwriter, lead guitarist, and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Oasis until their split in 2009. After leaving Oasis, he formed ...

in March 2012. The band released the lead single "Bassline" via Facebook in February of that year after playing their first gigs in two years just days before in Coventry.

Title

The album's title is ''@Reverend_Makers'' because McClure could not think of anything which summed up modern times better than the '@' symbol. The album name is the first music record to take its name from a micro-blogging site. McClure stated that the band originally wanted to call the album ''Out of the Shadows'', but joked that it sounded too much like

Alan Partridge Alan Gordon Partridge is a comedy character portrayed by the English actor Steve Coogan. A parody of British television personalities, Partridge is a tactless and inept broadcaster with an inflated sense of celebrity. Since his debut in 1991, h ...

's ''Bouncing Back''. The band also debated calling the record ''Pure Bangers'', but McClure decided it sounded like an Ibiza club mix.

Reception

''@Reverend Makers'' was met with "mixed or average" reviews from critics. At

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, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 55 based on 9 reviews. Allmusic summarised the album as "a pure carefree party record

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achieves its intentions far more convincingly than the band's previous party political broadcasts." ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' called the album "a riot" and gave it 6/10. The ''Independent'' gave the record 4/5 commenting that McClure comes across as a "less messed up Shaun Ryder".

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, meanwhile, commented the record was only let down by its shortness in length. Drowned in Sound gave the album 1/10, claiming that "many demons are slain at the altar of the Reverend in the course this album – wit, eloquence, incisiveness and originality to name but a few," while ''Q'' Magazine gave the album one star, advising readers to "steer clear" of the album.

Track listing

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reverend Makers 2012 albums Cooking Vinyl albums Reverend and The Makers albums Articles with underscores in the title