called it "bracing" and "intellectual", while Chris True of AllMusic referred to the album as "ear-shattering and spine-tingling at once" and stated that "the band has raised the bar for themselves and others once again." He also noted that the album had "touched on strange new territory." Overall critical response to The Argument was very positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 87, based on 20 reviews. Legacy and accolades The Argument continued to receive acclaim, appearing on a number of year-end lists including those of Pitchfork, Kerrang!, NME, The A.V. Club, and many others. The following year, Spin wrote that with the album, "Fugazi accomplished the rare feat of producing their best album almost 15 years into their career." In 2008, Turner Prize-nominated artist Mark Titchner ranked "The Kill" #1 on his list of the top 10 songs about liberty. The end of the decade saw many (predominantly US) publications including the album on their lists of the best albums of the decade. According to Acclaimedmusic - a website that aggregates information from a variety of different sources to rank albums and songs by critical acclaim - The Argument is the 145th best album of the decade and the 1073rd best album of all time: In 2012, Stereogum ranked it the band's best album, writing: "If "post-punk" were a descriptive term rather than a genre invented by journalists, The Argument might be one of the only albums worthy of such a distinction. [...] Only after repeat listens does the album emerge as a definitive statement alongside Daydream Nation, Zen Arcade, or Kid A. Weird, wonky and wonderful, The Argument is Fugazi's masterpiece." The album was positively re-evaluated by many sources prior to the release of First Demo in 2014. The band was included on Consequence of Sound's list of "10 Artists Who Went Out on Their Best Album", with the website writing that The Argument "opens up and reveals itself as a blossoming of the band’s entire career output, shot through with piano, cello, and (yes) acoustic guitar driving some of the fiercest songs Guy Picciotto or MacKaye have wrought together or apart." In an op-ed on the band, Alternative Press wrote that "[t]heir last (not final; remember they’re on hiatus) album [...] found Fugazi as vital, relevant and tuneful than ever.