Under Color of Official Right

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.4/10[2]
Metacritic	83/100[3]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[4]
Consequence of Sound	B−[5]
Drowned in Sound	8/10[6]
NME	8/10[7]
The Observer	[8]
Paste	8.6/10[9]
Pitchfork	8.1/10[10]
Q	[11]
Rolling Stone	[12]
Spin	8/10[13]

Under Color of Official Right was met with considerable praise from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 83, based on 18 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[3] Ranking it the 5th best album of the decade in 2020, Brooklyn Vegan wrote:[14]

Post punk sounds and industrial towns go hand in hand. Detroit’s Protomartyr have a sense of urgency and anger that could’ve sprouted from somewhere like Manchester or Cleveland in 1979 but frontman Joe Casey’s lyrics could’ve only sprung from one time and place. With a half-sung, half-shouted delivery, Casey is a true original, spewing literate bile that is usually funny, bleak and thoughtful all at the same time, while his three talented bandmates match his words with dark, powerful, exceptionally well-crafted music. [...] Under Color of Official Right, has them firing on all cylinders with Casey pointing his lens at, among other things, coastal invaders of his Detroit, absentee dads, local politics and inter-band dynamics. Best new band of this decade.

In addition to the ones listed below, the song "Maidenhead" was ranked by Spin and Les Inrockuptibles as the 68th[15] and 42nd[16] best song of the year respectively. Pitchfork ranked "Scum, Rise!" 90th on their list of "The 100 Best Tracks of 2014".[17] Rob Sheffield ranked "What the Wall Said" 7th on his list of the "Top 25 Songs of 2014 So Far".[18]

Author David Means cited the tracks "Maidenhead" and "Ain't So Simple", among others, as an influence on his novel Hystopia, writing that "they reclaim a certain Detroit aesthetic—casting an ear back to noisy machine tooling shops and factory floors, while also forward to some high tech future."[31] Andy MacFarlane of The Twilight Sad called it one of his favorite albums of the year.[32] The Dirty Nil covered the track "I'll Take That Applause" as the b-side to the sixth volume of their The Dirty Nil Record Club series of singles, released in 2017.[33][34]

Adapted from liner notes:

• Bass Guitar – Scott Davidson
• Drums – Alex Leonard
• Guitar, Synthesizer ["Prophet 5"] – Greg Ahee
• Vocals ["Vox"] – Joe Casey
• Writing ["All Songs By"] – Protomartyr

Additional credits

• Mastering – Sarah Register
• Recording, Mixing – Bill Skibbe