The album has gone on to receive critical acclaim, despite being a compilation, with many calling it one of the best albums of the
post-hardcore genre.
Stereogum called it "as auspicious as punk debuts come", further noting that on the album, "most of the Fugazi elements were in place from the jump, albeit in a somewhat less-developed form. If the concept of a punk band writing a song from the perspective of a woman being hooted at by sexist loudmouths seems revolutionary now, imagine what it sounded like in 1988, when the canon of classic punk still consisted largely of songs dealing with
beating on brats,
lynching landlords, and the
ritual impaling of cats." In a 5-star review for
Allmusic, Andy Kellman called the album "timeless" and wrote that "the importance of this record can perhaps be more suitably measured by the number of people who remember the first time they heard it. 13 Songs is usually among the first records that spring to mind when defining
alternative rock. Furious, intelligent, artful, and entirely musical, it's a baker's dozen of cannon shots to the gut -- not just a batch of emotionally visceral and defiant songs recorded by angry young men, but something greater." According to
Popmatters, the album (along with
Repeater) "remain the band's most widely successful and consistently praised work.
13 Songs, for instance, has sold over three million copies -- all without radio singles, music videos, or any of the tools of corporate publicity that help musicians reach that stratospheric level of success."
Accolades In 2005,
13 Songs was ranked 29 in
Spin's "100 Greatest Albums, 1985–2005".
NME ranked it #284 in their list of "
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2014.
Paste ranked it at #57 on their list of "The 80 Best Albums of the 1980s". In 2016,
Rolling Stone ranked it 35th on their list of the "40 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time". ==Influence==