Reception
Due to the frequency and blatant nature of the drug references in "Feel Good Hit of the Summer", a number of radio stations refused to play it. Wal-Mart initially refused to sell Rated R unless the song was removed from the album or a warning label placed upon it, though the band successfully argued that the cover and name of the album were warnings in themselves.
Critically, the song fared well and was chosen as a highlight of Rated R by The Guardian, Robert Christgau, and numerous others. In reference to the song, NME said in their review of the album that "Among modern American rock moments, it stands alongside "Smells Like Teen Spirit" or RATM's "Killing in the Name", such is its irresistible, instant impact", also labelling it an "anthem". Rolling Stone similarly likened the track to "unreleased Nirvana". Steve Huey of Allmusic wasn't so taken with the song, branding it "tiresome" and chastising its usage for a reprisal.
"Feel Good Hit of the Summer" was featured in a number of prominent end-of-year lists for best song, including Robert Christgau's Pazz & Jop critics poll where it charted at number 26. It also reached number six on NME's list, two places below fellow Rated R single "The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret". The song was also included on the CD release of the Triple J Hottest 100 for 2000, despite not featuring on the actual list. In October 2011, NME placed it at number 82 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".
Read more about this topic: Feel Good Hit Of The Summer
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“To aim to convert a man by miracles is a profanation of the soul. A true conversion, a true Christ, is now, as always, to be made by the reception of beautiful sentiments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)