A Joyful Noise received generally mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 60, based on 24 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".[4] Andy Gill of The Independent gave the album four out of five stars, writing that "the involvement of Brian Higgins on A Joyful Noise enables the group to break new ground with confidence".[10]The Guardian's Caroline Sullivan gave the album three out of five stars and stated that "it's Girls Aloud producer Higgins to the rescue, with a sound influenced by Abba and Madonna. Having said that, Gossip—especially Beth Ditto, in waspishly fine voice here—seem very much at home with it."[9] However, Priya Elan of NME felt that "[g]ood moments are squandered by unsatisfying choruses and/or weak lyrics."[11]The Independent on Sunday's Simon Price expressed that after a few years of career, Ditto "already feels like a footnote", adding that the band pairing up with Higgins "should be a stroke of genius, but Higgins has caught Ditto & co at a point where they appear to have disastrously lost their fire."[15]
Commercial performance
A Joyful Noise debuted at number 100 on the Billboard 200, selling 5,000 copies in its first week.[16] In Europe, the album debuted at number 47 on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 2,822 copies,[17] while reaching number one in Switzerland, number two in Germany, number three in France, number four in Austria and number eight in Belgium.[18]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Beth Ditto, Nathan Howdeshell, and Hannah Blilie, except where noted
^"Albums : Top 100". Jam!. May 23, 2012. Archived from the original on December 26, 2004. Retrieved June 1, 2012.((cite web)): CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)