Killing Puritans is the fourth studio album by Armand van Helden released in 2000. It was released as CD and as quadruple vinyl.
Controversy The album's cover art prominently featured an African child soldier, prone, aiming a rifle. The image was controversial enough to threaten the album to be banned worldwide. Eventually, UK versions of the album were sold in a plain brown cardboard sleeve that concealed the offending image.
Critical reception
Critical reception to the album was varied, with coverage ranging from mostly positive, to mixed to significantly negative.
A reviewer for AllMusic felt that the music was better suited to nightclubs rather than personal listening, with heavy club themes alongside freestyle rapping and "diva theatrics". The music was generally considered to be an enjoyable blend of several different genres but lacking in anything to make it a true hit.
An NME review was generally positive towards the music quality of the songs played, again noting of the skill set across multiple genres. However it was criticized for its attempts to claim social relevance, particularly in relation to Armand's claims to breaks taboos, while failing to make any clear-cut social indication and is instead similar to the dance industry most criticized by the author.
A critic for LA Weekly called Killing Puritans "a very bad album, both in its politics and its sound", indicating that the mix of genres complimented elsewhere in fact reduced any coherence of the album, rendering it as a mixture of songs - with further criticism of the quality of most.
A review in Exclaim! gave a mixed analysis of Killing Puritans. Many of the songs have their musical competence complimented "eclectic, energetic and full of attitude", but the review contrasts them with stodgy performance elsewhere. Several songs come in for particular criticism lyrically as standard dance culture, not up to prior music by Armand.
Track listing
Charts Chart (2000) Peakposition Australian Albums (ARIA) N.B. The High Point number in the NAT column represents the release's peak on the national chart.170 Belgian Albums Chart49 UK Albums Chart38
Release history Country Release date Format Label Catalogue Australia May 29, 2000 CD London 8573833195 United States October 1, 2005 CD
References