are far superior to many of their hardcore competitors," McCardell concludes, "[t]he Minutemen's music is seldom pretty, but always challenging." Writing for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau similarly praised the band's lyricism but wrote that he "prefer[s] their music." "The more you listen", he continues, "the less fragmentary these eighteen tense little guess-you-have-to-call-them tunes sound--each transforms its own riff into an identity that meshes with the album's guess-you-have-to-call-it gestalt." Years later, Mark Deming would also review the album positively for AllMusic, writing that "on their second (relatively) long-player [...] the three dudes from Pedro opted to slow down their tempos a bit, and something remarkable happened -- the Minutemen revealed that they were writing really great songs, with a remarkable degree of stylistic diversity." "It says a lot about the Minutemen's growth that The Punch Line sounded like a great punk album," he concludes, "but a year later What Makes a Man Start Fires? sounded like a great album -- period." In a 2015 retrospective piece on the album written for The A.V. Club, Noel Murray wrote:What’s particularly radical about What Makes A Man Start Fires? though is the way that it documents Boon and Watt’s dawning understanding that maybe music for and about “the workers” should be something that blue-collar types might actually enjoy. It’s not that Paranoid Time and The Punch Line aren’t entertaining, but there’s very little in the Minutemen’s first two years of songs as hooky as “’99” or “Life As A Rehearsal,” or that feels as fully fleshed-out as “Sell Or Be Sold” or “Fake Contest.” The simple addition of the occasional overdub, extended break, or guitar solo was all it took to make even a minute-long Minutemen song seem “finished.” Track listing Personnel Minutemen D. Boon - guitar, lead vocals Mike Watt - bass, backing vocals George Hurley - drums, oil drums Additional musicians Joe Baiza - additional guitar on "Beacon Sighted Through Fog" and "East Wind/Faith". References Minutemen (band) albums 1983 albums SST Records albums Albums produced by Spot (producer)