A Joyful Noise (Gossip album)

Critical reception

A Joyful Noise received generally mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 60, based on 24 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". 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". 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." However, Priya Elan of the NME felt that "[g]ood moments are squandered by unsatisfying choruses and/or weak lyrics." 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."

Commercial performance

A Joyful Noise debuted at number 100 on the Billboard 200, selling 5,000 copies in its first week. In Europe, the album debuted at number 47 on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 2,822 copies, while reaching number one in Switzerland, number two in Germany, number three in France, number four in Austria and number eight in Belgium. The album has sold approximately 70,000 copies in France alone.

Track listing

All tracks written by Beth Ditto, Nathan Howdeshell, and Hannah Blilie, except where noted.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of A Joyful Noise.