Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	79%
Review scores
Source	Rating
AbsolutePunk.net	(96%) link
Allmusic	link
Alternative Press	link
The A.V. Club	(B+) link
Blender	link
Entertainment Weekly	(A-) link
Kerrang!
Spin	link
Sputnikmusic	link
Rolling Stone	link

In Defense of The Genre is the third full-length studio album by American pop-punk band Say Anything. The album artwork was provided by Jeff Smith, an artist primarily known for his work on the Bone comic series.

Writing and plans for In Defense of the Genre began in March 2006 during Say Anything's extensive touring and promotion for the reissue of their previous effort, …Is a Real Boy. The band started rehearsing and piecing together the album through pre-production the next year in January 2007, until the record was finally completed half a year later in September. Max Bemis described in an interview that the record is more focused on "observations of other people", unlike ...Is a Real Boy's lyrical content revolving solely on Bemis and his problems. The record "picks up in my life where [...Is a Real Boy] left off because it is very autobiographical, even more so than the last record. Musically, it's different, more mature and somewhat more cohesive and poppy, but darker in a whole different way."

The album features 23 individual guest vocalists and musicians, including Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, Pete Yorn, Anna Waronker, Adam Lazzara of Taking Back Sunday, Aaron Gillespie of Underoath and The Almost, Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio, and Hayley Williams of Paramore. Additional instrumentation was handled by DJ Swamp and Casey Prestwood, whom contributed on turntable and pedal steel guitar, respectively. The December issue of Alternative Press reported that Jesse Lacey of Brand New chose not to collaborate. In December 2007, Absolutepunk.net did a 3-part video series showing an in depth look at the recording of In Defense of the Genre.

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Wikipedia