Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 76/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Blender | |
| Classic Rock | |
| NME | |
| New York Times | (Positive) |
| Paste | (Positive) |
| Pitchfork Media | (6.3/10) |
| PopMatters | (Neutral) |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Spin | (A) |
With the Lights Out received generally positive reviews from music critics, many of whom saw it as a valuable glimpse into the band's musical evolution. Julian Marshall of the NME called it "a humanising, comprehensive and often heartbreaking document of a man who, in five years, changed the face of music, almost by accident."
However, several critics felt it contained too much second-rate material never intended for official release. Mark Richardson of Pitchfork wrote, "Those hoping for a trove of overlooked gems will be disappointed...Simply put, there's enough good stuff here for a solid single disc." Tim O'Neil of PopMatters wrote, "The majority of the material presented here will appeal only to a select group of hardcore fans, music historians and critics."
Fans also accused the compilers of the set of lack of proper research. According to the website Live Nirvana, some of the material on the box set appears in inferior quality to what had been circulating among fans, or even to previously-released versions of the same material. For example, the version of "Here She Comes Now" on the box set is believed to have been derived from an inferior source to the version of the same recording on the 1990 compilation, Heaven & Hell - A Tribute to the Velvet Underground, Volume One
Read more about this topic: With The Lights Out
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