Common Existence - Reception

Reception

The album so far has a score of 72 out of 100 from Metacritic based on "generally favorable reviews". AbsolutePunk gave it an 88% and said, "Over the course of the last few years, Thursday has seemed to be the forgotten band, one we take for granted. But with Common Existence, Thursday will be knocking down doors throughout 2009." Punknews.org gave it a score of four stars out of five and said, "true return to indie-dom, Common Existence is a good fit for Epitaph. Both sides prove they still know what good post-hardcore music sounds like. Common Existence washes the bad taste of Sage Francis and Escape the Fate right out. The record is somehow forward-thinking, further pushing the more atmospheric approach glimpsed at on the band's split with Envy last year, yet speckled with retro stylings of previous albums. The A.V. Club gave it a B and said it was "the band’s densest, most accomplished album to date, with sonic layers and the complexity of a big-budget record, without the bloat." NME gave it a score of seven out of ten and called it "a worthy addition to Thursday’s canon."

Other reviews are average, mixed or negative: Blender gave it a score of three stars out of five and said it "amps up the band’s aggro guitars, cookie-monster yells and proggy ambition." Billboard gave it an average review and said it "melds the band's hardcore influences with shoegaze and atmospheric elements, with mixed results." The New York Times also gave it an average review and called it "the least pungent and immediate Thursday album since its debut. In places it sounds like an experiment, sometimes a successful one." Melodic.net gave it a score of one-and-a-half stars out of five and called it "one of the biggest letdowns".