Killing Puritans

Killing Puritans is the 4th studio album by Armand van Helden released in 2000. It was released as CD and as quadruple vinyl.

Killing Puritans
Studio album by Armand van Helden
Released	26 June 2000
Label	Armed Records
Armand van Helden chronology
Armand Van Helden's Nervous Tracks (1999) Killing Puritans (2000) Gandhi Khan (2001)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
NME	[2]

Controversy

The album's cover art prominently featured an African child soldier, prone, and 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.

Track listing

1. "Killing Puritans" (Intro) – 2:06 (Armand Van Helden)
2. "Little Black Spiders" (feat. Fiona Marr) – 8:15 (Armand Van Helden/Klaus Meine/Herman Harebell/Rudolph Schenker)
3. "Breakdancers Call" – 6:21 (Armand Van Helden)
4. "House Boxing" (feat. Lord Sear) – 2:05 (Armand Van Helden)
5. "Full Moon" (featuring Common) – 4:19 (Armand Van Helden/Lonnie Lynn/James Bedford)
6. "Koochy" – 8:07 (Armand Van Helden/Gary Numan)
7. "Watch Your Back" (feat. Herbie Hancock & N'Dea Davenport) – 8:23 (Bill Summers/Paul Jackson/Mike Clark/Bennie Mauphin/N'Dea Davenport/Trevant Hardson)
8. "Hybridz" (feat. The Mongoloids) – 10:01 (Armand Van Helden/E. Sanchez/Michael Smith)
9. "Flyaway Love" – 9:08 (Armand Van Helden)
10. "Swamp Thang" – 5:49 (Armand Van Helden)
11. "Conscience" (featuring Tekitha)– 9:07(Armand Van Helden/Tekitha Washington)

Critical Reception

Critical reception to the album was varied, with coverage ranging from mostly positive, to mixed to significantly negative.

AllMusic felt that the music was better suited to nightclub 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.[1]

NME was generally positive towards the music quality of the songs played, again noting of the skill set across multiple genres. However it was criticised 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 criticised by the author.[2]

LAWeekly was hostile towards the album, summarising it as "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 most of their quality.[3]

Exclaim! gave a mixed analysis of Killing Puritans. Many of the songs have their musical competence complimented "eclectic, energetic and full of attitude"; but contrasts them with stodgy performance elsewhere. Several songs come in for particular criticism lyrically as standard dance culture and not up to prior music by Armand.[4]

Charts

Year	Chart	Peak Position
2000	UK Albums Chart	#38
2000	Belgium Albums Chart	#49[5]

Release history

Country	Release Date	Format	Label	Catalogue
Australia	May 29, 2000[6]	CD Album	London	8573833195[6]
USA	October 1, 2005[7]	CD Album

References

1. John Bush. "Killing Puritans review by AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
2. "Killing Puritans review by NME". NME. 12 September 2005. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
3. Ernest Hardy (2 August 2000). "Killing Puritans review by LAWeekly". LAWeekly. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
4. Prasad Bidaye (1 July 2000). "Killing Puritans review by Exclaim!". Exclaim.ca. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
5. Steffen Hung. "Armand van Helden - Killing Puritans". australian-charts.com. Retrieved 2011-10-12.