Reception
Mike DaRonco of Allmusic gave All four stars out of five, saying that "With this record, not only are they forgiven for the bad spots to be found on here — it's not like they can't be skipped over — but their last release (Enjoy!) will be forgotten." He remarked that the relationship-themed songs "prove that the most creative music comes out of personal tragedy" and called it a felony that "Pep Talk" was not included on the band's 1991 "best of" compilation Somery. By contrast, DaRonco's colleague Jason Ankeny referred to All as "lackluster" in his biography of the band. Jenny Eliscu of Rolling Stone praised Aukerman's growth as a lyricist in several songs: "All is often underrated because of the strange pseudo-arty in-strumental tracks on its second half; nonetheless, the album features three of the band's best songs, 'Cameage,' 'Coolidge,' and 'Clean Sheets.' The subjects are perennial, but Auckerman's sophistication as a lyricist has grown. 'Coolidge' is about accepting one's uncoolness, and 'Clean Sheets' talks of being forced to sleep on the floor after a lover's infidelity sullies the sheets."
Read more about this topic: All (Descendents album)
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“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)
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
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“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)