Game Theory (album)
Encyclopedia
Game Theory is the seventh studio album
by American hip hop
band The Roots
, released August 29, 2006, on Def Jam Recordings
. The group's first release for the label after leaving Geffen Records
, the album was recorded by the Roots mostly using the Apple-developed software application GarageBand
. A darker, grittier album with minimal emphasis on hook
s in comparison to their previous work, Game Theory features a stripped-down sound similar to the work of Public Enemy, with lyrics that concern sociological themes and the late hip hop producer J Dilla
.
The album debuted at number nine on the U.S. Billboard 200
chart, selling 61,000 copies in its first week. It produced two singles and achieved moderate sales success. Upon its release, Game Theory received general acclaim from most music critics and earned a Grammy Award
nomination for Best Rap Album
. To date, the album has sold over 200,000 copies in the United States.
magazine, Questlove expressed his view on contemporary black music and described the concept of Game Theory, comparing it to previous works:
Described by Questlove as "very mature, serious, and very dark", the album, unlike the band's previous two efforts Phrenology
(2002) and The Tipping Point
(2004), combines The Roots's progressive tendencies and lush, jazz influenced hip-hop into a more homogenous and cohesive recording than past efforts had shown. In what could be a salute to a fellow experimental band, The Roots sample Radiohead
's "You and Whose Army?" for the track "Atonement".
The subject material for Game Theory follows the more serious tone of the album, with topics ranging from the war in Iraq
to violence in music. Questlove was quoted as saying "There was too much going on that we couldn’t just sit back and not speak on it." In accordance with its more-serious tone, the album heavily references Public Enemy's highly-political It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
on its lead track "False Media".
chart with first week sales of 61,000 copies. It also debuted at number five on Billboard
s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
and at number four on its Top Digital Albums chart. According to Nielsen SoundScan
, the album has sold over 200,000 copies in the United States.
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
score of 83, based on 26 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". It is listed as the site's twenty-fourth best-reviewed album of 2006. Allmusic writer Andy Kellman gave the album 4½ out of 5 stars and praised its musical quality and lyrical themes, writing "Spinning turbulence, paranoia, anger, and pain into some of the most exhilarating and startling music released in 2006,... Game Theory is a heavy album, the Roots' sharpest work. It's destined to become one of Def Jam's proudest, if not most popular, moments". USA Today
s Steve Jones gave it a rave review and lauded The Roots' thematic approach, stating "A broad range of issues is weighing on the Philadelphia band — war, poverty, corruption, Katrina — and they attack them with a ferocity they haven’t displayed in years". The New York Times
writer Nate Chinen viewed the album's production as inconsistent, but found Black Thought
's performance more focused and engaged that on previous efforts, while writing that "?uestlove infuses Game Theory with a hard sonic logic, so that the music often sounds as tough as the lyrics". Vibes Thomas Golianopoulos gave it 4 out of 5 stars and called it "a masterfully crafted, sobering wake-up call". Jeff Vrabel of PopMatters
dubbed it "The Roots' darkest, grimiest, most unrelenting and possibly most focused effort to date".
Los Angeles Times
writer Oliver Wang gave the album three out of four stars and commented that it "moves coherently as a whole and not just assemblage of spare songs". Rolling Stone
s Peter Relic viewed the album as a progression over their previous work and wrote "For every head-nodding beat (and ?uestlove brings plenty of 'em), Game Theory has a head-turning treat". In his consumer guide for MSN Music
, critic Robert Christgau
gave Game Theory a rating of honorable mention , indicating "an enjoyable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well treasure." Will Dukes of The Village Voice
called it The Roots' "most radical record to date" and commended Black Thought for his lyricism on the album, writing "Raw, emotive, and urgent as a motherfucker, his flow—on songs like opener 'False Media,' whose gangly steel snares give way to plush orchestration—is bleak and expansive and seething with wrath". Giving it 5 out of 5 stars, About.com
writer Henry Adaso cited the album as "their heaviest and strongest release since Things Fall Apart
", and wrote "Part of what makes Game Theory succeed is the Roots' ability to mirror current/personal events on their music. Themes about confusion, loss (inspired by tragedies like hurricane Katrina and J Dilla's death), corporate woes, double standards and war pervade throughout this album".
In its end-of-year list, Rolling Stone named it the eighteenth best album of 2006, calling it "classic studio Roots". It was named one of the top ten albums of the year by URB. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album
, ultimately losing to rapper Ludacris
's Release Therapy
(2006) at the 49th Grammy Awards.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
band The Roots
The Roots
The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...
, released August 29, 2006, on Def Jam Recordings
Def Jam Recordings
Def Jam Recordings is an American record label, focused primarily on hip hop and urban music, owned by Universal Music Group, and operates as a part of The Island Def Jam Motown Music Group...
. The group's first release for the label after leaving Geffen Records
Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:...
, the album was recorded by the Roots mostly using the Apple-developed software application GarageBand
GarageBand
GarageBand is a software application for Mac OS X and iOS that allows users to create music or podcasts. It is developed by Apple Inc. as a part of the iLife software package on Mac OS X.-Audio recording:...
. A darker, grittier album with minimal emphasis on hook
Hook (music)
A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener". The term generally applies to popular music, especially rock music, hip hop, dance music, and pop. In these genres, the hook is often...
s in comparison to their previous work, Game Theory features a stripped-down sound similar to the work of Public Enemy, with lyrics that concern sociological themes and the late hip hop producer J Dilla
J Dilla
James Dewitt Yancey , better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan...
.
The album debuted at number nine on the U.S. Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart, selling 61,000 copies in its first week. It produced two singles and achieved moderate sales success. Upon its release, Game Theory received general acclaim from most music critics and earned a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
nomination for Best Rap Album
Grammy Award for Best Rap Album
The Grammy Award for Best Rap Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums with rapping at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
. To date, the album has sold over 200,000 copies in the United States.
Music
In an interview for Rolling StoneRolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine, Questlove expressed his view on contemporary black music and described the concept of Game Theory, comparing it to previous works:
Described by Questlove as "very mature, serious, and very dark", the album, unlike the band's previous two efforts Phrenology
Phrenology (album)
Phrenology is the fifth studio album by American hip hop band The Roots, released November 26, 2002, on Geffen Records and MCA Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during June 2000 to September 2002...
(2002) and The Tipping Point
The Tipping Point (album)
The Tipping Point is the sixth studio album by American hip hop band The Roots, released July 13, 2004 on Geffen Records. It is named after Malcolm Gladwell's book of the same name , and it serves as the follow-up to Phrenology...
(2004), combines The Roots's progressive tendencies and lush, jazz influenced hip-hop into a more homogenous and cohesive recording than past efforts had shown. In what could be a salute to a fellow experimental band, The Roots sample Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
's "You and Whose Army?" for the track "Atonement".
The subject material for Game Theory follows the more serious tone of the album, with topics ranging from the war in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
to violence in music. Questlove was quoted as saying "There was too much going on that we couldn’t just sit back and not speak on it." In accordance with its more-serious tone, the album heavily references Public Enemy's highly-political It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is the second studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy, released April 14, 1988, on Def Jam Recordings. Recording sessions for the album took place at Chung King Studios, Greene Street Recording, and Sabella Studios in New York City...
on its lead track "False Media".
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number nine on the U.S. Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart with first week sales of 61,000 copies. It also debuted at number five on Billboard
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...
and at number four on its Top Digital Albums chart. According to Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan is an information and sales tracking system created by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett. Soundscan is the official method of tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada...
, the album has sold over 200,000 copies in the United States.
Critical response
Game Theory received general acclaim from music critics. At MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 83, based on 26 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". It is listed as the site's twenty-fourth best-reviewed album of 2006. Allmusic writer Andy Kellman gave the album 4½ out of 5 stars and praised its musical quality and lyrical themes, writing "Spinning turbulence, paranoia, anger, and pain into some of the most exhilarating and startling music released in 2006,... Game Theory is a heavy album, the Roots' sharpest work. It's destined to become one of Def Jam's proudest, if not most popular, moments". USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
s Steve Jones gave it a rave review and lauded The Roots' thematic approach, stating "A broad range of issues is weighing on the Philadelphia band — war, poverty, corruption, Katrina — and they attack them with a ferocity they haven’t displayed in years". The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
writer Nate Chinen viewed the album's production as inconsistent, but found Black Thought
Black Thought
Tariq Trotter , better known as Black Thought, is an American hip-hop artist who is the lead MC of the Philadelphia-based hip hop group The Roots and occasional actor...
's performance more focused and engaged that on previous efforts, while writing that "?uestlove infuses Game Theory with a hard sonic logic, so that the music often sounds as tough as the lyrics". Vibes Thomas Golianopoulos gave it 4 out of 5 stars and called it "a masterfully crafted, sobering wake-up call". Jeff Vrabel of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
dubbed it "The Roots' darkest, grimiest, most unrelenting and possibly most focused effort to date".
Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
writer Oliver Wang gave the album three out of four stars and commented that it "moves coherently as a whole and not just assemblage of spare songs". Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s Peter Relic viewed the album as a progression over their previous work and wrote "For every head-nodding beat (and ?uestlove brings plenty of 'em), Game Theory has a head-turning treat". In his consumer guide for MSN Music
MSN Music
MSN Music was a part of the MSN web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. In 2004, Microsoft created an MSN Music download store to compete with Apple's iTunes Music Store, though its sales in comparison were...
, critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
gave Game Theory a rating of honorable mention , indicating "an enjoyable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well treasure." Will Dukes of The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
called it The Roots' "most radical record to date" and commended Black Thought for his lyricism on the album, writing "Raw, emotive, and urgent as a motherfucker, his flow—on songs like opener 'False Media,' whose gangly steel snares give way to plush orchestration—is bleak and expansive and seething with wrath". Giving it 5 out of 5 stars, About.com
About.com
About.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....
writer Henry Adaso cited the album as "their heaviest and strongest release since Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart (album)
Things Fall Apart is the fourth studio album by American hip hop band The Roots, released February 23, 1999 on Geffen Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at Electric Lady Studios during 1997 to 1999, coinciding with recording for other projects of the Soulquarians collective,...
", and wrote "Part of what makes Game Theory succeed is the Roots' ability to mirror current/personal events on their music. Themes about confusion, loss (inspired by tragedies like hurricane Katrina and J Dilla's death), corporate woes, double standards and war pervade throughout this album".
In its end-of-year list, Rolling Stone named it the eighteenth best album of 2006, calling it "classic studio Roots". It was named one of the top ten albums of the year by URB. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album
Grammy Award for Best Rap Album
The Grammy Award for Best Rap Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums with rapping at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards...
, ultimately losing to rapper Ludacris
Ludacris
Christopher Brian Bridges , better known by his stage name Ludacris, is an American rapper and actor. Along with his manager, Chaka Zulu, Ludacris is the co-founder of Disturbing tha Peace, an imprint distributed by Def Jam Recordings...
's Release Therapy
Release Therapy
The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart selling over 309,000 copies in the first week making it Ludacris' third number one album in a row. To date, the album has sold about 1.3 million copies.-Track listing:-Charts:Album-References:...
(2006) at the 49th Grammy Awards.
Track listing
| # | Title | Producer(s) | Performer (s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Dilltastic Vol Won(derful)" | J Dilla | J Dilla *Instrumental* | 0:28 |
| 2 | "False Media" | Kamal Gray, The Randy Watson Experience |
Black Thought, Wadud Ahmad |
2:34 |
| 3 | "Game Theory" | The Roots, Khari Mateen |
Black Thought, Malik B |
4:01 |
| 4 | "Don't Feel Right" | The Roots, Tahir Jamal |
Black Thought, Maimouna Youssef |
4:08 |
| 5 | "In the Music" | The Roots, Richard Nichols, Pedro Martinez, Owen Biddle, Kevin Hansen |
Black Thought, Malik B |
4:06 |
| 6 | "Take It There" | The Roots, Questlove, Richard Nichols, Pedro Martinez, Adam Blackstone, Kevin Hansen |
Black Thought, Wadud Ahmad |
2:50 |
| 7 | "Baby" | The Roots, John McGlinchey |
Black Thought, John-John |
2:50 |
| 8 | "Here I Come" | The Roots, Richard Nichols, Owen Biddle, Pedro Martinez, Brook D'Leau |
Black Thought, Dice Raw Dice Raw Dice Raw is a hip-hop artist associated with The Roots, and one of the founding members of musical group Nouveau Riche.In 2000, Dice Raw recorded his solo debut album, Reclaiming the Dead on MCA Records.... , Malik B |
4:11 |
| 9 | "Long Time" | The Roots, Kevin Hansen, Owen Biddle, Darryl Robinson, Richard Nichols, Omar Edwards |
Black Thought, Peedi Peedi Peedi Peedi Pedro Zayas, known as Peedi Crakk and also Peedi Peedi is an American rapper of Puerto Rican descent. He is a member of State Property and is currently signed to Amalgam Digital.-Career:... , Bunny Sigler Bunny Sigler Walter "Bunny" Sigler is a pop and R&B songwriter and record producer who has done extensive work with the team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, and who was instrumental in creating the "Philly Sound" in the early 1970s. He is nicknamed "Mr... |
4:21 |
| 10 | "Livin' in a New World" | The Roots, Khari Mateen |
Black Thought, John-John |
1:47 |
| 11 | "Clock with No Hands" | The Roots, Khari Mateen, Brook D'Leau |
Black Thought, Mercedes Martinez |
4:23 |
| 12 | "Atonement" | The Roots, The Randy Watson Experience |
Black Thought, Jack Davey |
2:35 |
| 13 | "Can't Stop This" | J Dilla, The Roots, The Randy Watson Experience |
Black Thought | 8:35 |
| * | "Bread & Butter" (UK, Japan, iTunes ITunes iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.... bonus track) |
Black Thought, Truck North | 3:40 | |
Sample credits
- The intro track "Dillatastic Vol Won(derful)" used a sample of Slum VillageSlum VillageSlum Village was a hip hop group from Conant Gardens, Detroit, Michigan.The group was formed by three members: rappers Baatin and T3, plus rapper and producer J Dilla . J Dilla left in 2002 to pursue a solo career with MCA Records...
's first album, Fantastic Vol.1's intro track, "Fantastic", which J Dilla produced. ("Fantastic" incorporates elements of a Herbie Hancock composition "You'll Know When You Get There," from VSOP (album)VSOP (album)V.S.O.P. is a 1976 jazz-funk fusion live album by keyboard player Herbie Hancock featuring performances by the V.S.O.P. Quintet , the Mwandishi band with Eddie Henderson on two tracks, and The Headhunters featuring Bennie Maupin and Paul Jackson.Although this album was half-fusion, half-acoustic,...
.) - The track "Game Theory" contains a sample of Sly and the Family Stone's "Life of Fortune and Fame".
- The track "False Media" contains interpolations of Public Enemy's "Don't Believe The Hype".
- The track "Don't Feel Right" samples Kool & The GangKool & the GangKool & the Gang are an American jazz, R&B, soul, and funk group, originally formed as the Jazziacs in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1964.They went through several musical phases during the course of their recording career, starting out with a purist jazz sound, then becoming practitioners of R&B and...
's "Jungle Boogie" & The Ohio Players's "Ecstasy". - The track "Atonement" samples RadioheadRadioheadRadiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
's "You and Whose Army?" - The track "Cant Stop This" contains a sample of The Jackson 5The Jackson 5The Jackson 5 , later known as The Jacksons, were an American popular music family group from Gary, Indiana...
's "All I Do Is Think Of You". It should be noted that this song's backing track is an extended version of J DillaJ DillaJames Dewitt Yancey , better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan...
's "Time: The Donut of the Heart" from his third solo album DonutsDonuts (album)Donuts is an instrumental hip hop album by producer J Dilla. Donuts was released on February 7, 2006, his 32nd birthday, and only three days before his death...
.
Personnel
- Black Thought – rap
- Davis Barnett – viola
- Robert "LB" Dorsey – engineer
- Jenny Dilorenzo – cello
- Kirk Douglass – guitar
- Russell Elevado – mixing, recording
- Larry Gold – string arrangements, conductor, cello
- Jason Goldstein – mixing
- Kamal Gray – keyboards
- Kevin Hanson – producer
- Leonard Hubbard – bass
- Gloria Justin – violin
- Dave Klutch – mastering
- Emma Kummrow – violin
- Malik B. – rap
- Steve Mandel – engineer
- Khari Mateen – producer, engineer
- Richard Nichols – producer
- Charles Parker – violin
- The Roots – performer, producer
- Jon Smeltz – engineer
- Igor Szwec – violin
- Ahmir '?uestlove' Thompson – drums
- Frank "Knuckles" Walker – percussion
Chart history
| Chart (2006) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
9 |
| U.S. Billboard Top Digital Albums Billboard charts The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine... |
4 |
| U.S. Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999... |
5 |
| U.S. Billboard Top Rap Albums Top Rap Albums Top Rap Albums is a record chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks Rap and hip-hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart began publication for the week of November 13, 2004.... |
4 |
External links
- Game Theory at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
- Game Theory at MetacriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...