but I don’t love ‘em near as much by themselves as I do in the sequence. The space they get from the songs around them, and the space they give the songs around them, makes me love those songs more. If you take them out, mix them all up — totally different album, it’s a totally different journey. It’s one of the only albums I can think of that I really believe that, if you put it on shuffle, you’re going to have an entirely different experience than if you listen to it the way it’s presented. I don’t know that people do that any more, but it’s meant to be listened to that way." Critical reception The Outsiders has garnered critical acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, the album was assigned a "weighted average" score to selected independent ratings and reviews, and based upon eleven reviews, it has a Metascore of an 82, indicating "universal acclaim". The USA Todays Brian Mansfield gave the album a perfect rating of four stars, stating that on the album, Church "steps far outside country music's safety zone" saying that "[i]t's adventurous and outrageous, full of metallic guitars and funky country skronk but also expresses vulnerability and pain." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the album a rating of three-and-a-half out of five stars, writing that "[even] if he doesn't quite knock it out of the park when he swings for the fences, he nevertheless scores." At The Oakland Press, Gary Graff gave the album a two-and-a-half out of four star rating, saying that "It's 50 minutes of unapologetic daring that gets messy at times, but it's hard not to give Church big props for keeping his gaze forward." Sarah Rodman of The Boston Globe gave a positive review, telling that "The reckoning continues on the superb follow-up 'The Outsiders'." At Rolling Stone, Will Hermes rated the album four stars out of five, writing that Church "made a record that's weirder, louder [...] and even more badass" on which shows Church's "crafty, ambitious songwriter with a sensitive, rueful side." Jon Caramanica of The New York Times, wrote a positive review for the album, and noted that Church is a "wise songwriter", but this "does not give him license to the lyrics and songs he crafts even though he sings these sorts of songs with more authority, or more vision, than his contemporaries". Jody Rosen