Upon its release Zen Arcade received positive reviews in many mainstream publications, including NME,[REF] The New York Times[REF] and Rolling Stone.
Zen Arcade placed eighth in The Village Voice annual Pazz & Jop poll[REF] and Robert Christgau declared in his annual review of the poll's results that, while he preferred peers The Replacements' Let It Be, the song "Turn On the News" garnered his nomination for song of the year [REF].