''Scum'' (stylized in

all caps In typography, text or font in all caps (short for "all capitals") contains capital letters without any lowercase letters. For example: All-caps text can be seen in legal documents, advertisements, newspaper headlines, and the titles on book co ...

) is the debut studio album by English Musician Rat Boy. It was released on 11 August 2017 via

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parloph ...

. The album peaked at number 15 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

Critical reception

''SCUM'' was met with generally favorable reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a

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rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 74 based on ten reviews. The aggregator AnyDecentMusic? has the critical consensus of the album at a 6.8 out of 10, based on thirteen reviews.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's Neil Z. Yeung wrote: "forgiving those space fillers, ''Scum'' remains a great pleasure, the product of a young mind brimming with ideas coupled with enough youthful bravery to take such risks". Emma Swann of '' DIY'' wrote: "on this debut, Jordan and pals aren't afraid to contrast bravado with vulnerability, and it's in the unexpected that their debut shines brightes". Paul Moody of '' Q'' wrote: "the 21-year-old's eclectic debut oozes attitude, his pithy social commentary binding together sonic excursions into breezy funk-punk, poundshop hip-hop and indie tearjerkers". Hannah J Davies of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' noticed: "some gimmicky Grand Theft Auto-style radio interludes aside, this is a state-of-the-nation record that's as sparkly as it is snarky". Will Rosebury of '' Clash'' wrote: "although ''SCUM'' can sometimes feel like the 2017 update of music you've enjoyed from the past 20 years, at its best Rat Boy delivers some of the most interesting and exciting moments to come from British music this year". Steven Loftin of ''

The Line of Best Fit ''The Line of Best Fit'' is an independent online magazine based in London, concentrating on new music. It publishes independent music reviews, features, interview, and media. Founded by Richard Thane in February 2007 and currently edited by P ...

'' wrote: "if you aren't into skits and novelty voice acting then you might struggle with the twenty five-high track listing. If you are though, you're in for a treat". In mixed reviews, Chris White of ''

musicOMH ''MusicOMH'' (stylized as ''musicOMH'') is a London-based online music magazine which publishes independent reviews, features and interviews from across all genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B. History ''MusicOMH'' was founded an ...

'' found the album "rarely subtle and its relentless pace can become a little bit much at times. Yet there's enough promise here to suggest that with more development and quality control, Ratboy could grow into an artist of significant stature". Will Pritchard of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' described the album "more revolt than revolution. But there's undoubtedly talent here--and there’s every chance Cardy, not T, will be the touchpoint 10 years from now". Thomas H Green of ''

The Arts Desk ''The Arts Desk'' (theartsdesk.com) is a British arts journalism website containing reviews, interviews, news, and other content related to music, theatre, television, films, and other art forms written by journalists from a variety of tradition ...

'' resumed: "it's a bouncy, youthful, over-excited Labrador of a thing". Damien Morris of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' wrote: "what starts off as a gang-signing, car-stealing, signing-on 21st-century Clash ends up as Jamie T robbing Jesus Jones, far more Westfield than Westway".

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

* Jordan Cardy – vocals, keyboards, guitar, co-producer *

Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (, ; born 23 March 1968) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the frontman, main vocalist, and lyricist of the rock band Blur (band), Blur and the co-creator and primary musical con ...

– backing vocals, keyboards *Junior Dan – bass *Noah Booth – drums *

Graham Coxon Graham Leslie Coxon (born 12 March 1969) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who came to prominence as a founding member of the rock band Blur. As the group's lead guitarist and secondary vocalist, Coxon is featured on all of Blur' ...

– guitar *

Nick Hodgson Nicholas James David Hodgson (born 20 October 1977) is an English musician and songwriter, formerly of the indie rock band Kaiser Chiefs. Early life He attended St. Mary's Menston with Nick Baines and Simon Rix. He then went on to Trinity ...

– drums *Mallory Merk – additional vocals *Jason Cox – producer *James Dring – producer *

Stephen Street Stephen Brian Street (born 29 March 1960 in Hackney, London) is an English record producer best known for his work with the Smiths, the Cranberries and Blur. Street collaborated with Morrissey on his debut album '' Viva Hate'' following the ...

– producer

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control Rat Boy albums 2017 debut albums Parlophone albums Albums produced by Stephen Street