Editing Skid Row (Skid Row album) (section)

==Critical reception and legacy==
{{music ratings
|rev1=[[AllMusic]]
|rev1score={{Rating|4|5}}<ref name="AM">{{cite web|first=Steve|last=Huey|title=Skid Row – Skid Row|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/skid-row-mw0000198647|website=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=June 20, 2011}}</ref>
|rev2=''[[Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s|Christgau's Record Guide]]''
|rev2score=C+<ref name="CG">{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1990|title=Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s|page=[https://archive.org/details/christgausrecord00chri/page/372 372]|publisher=[[Pantheon Books]]|isbn=0-6797-3015-X|url=https://archive.org/details/christgausrecord00chri/page/372|access-date=June 9, 2018|url-access=registration}}</ref>
|rev3 =''[[Martin Popoff|Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal]]''
|rev3Score = 7/10<ref name="martin" >{{cite book | last1 = Popoff | first1 = Martin | author-link1 = Martin Popoff | title = The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties | publisher = [[Collector's Guide Publishing]] | date = November 1, 2005 | location = [[Burlington, Ontario]], Canada | isbn = 978-1-894959-31-5 | page=326}}</ref>
|rev4=''[[The Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]''
|rev4score={{Rating|2|5}}<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book|last=Larkin|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|year=2007|title=[[The Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]|publisher=[[Omnibus Press]]|isbn=978-0-85712-595-8|edition=5th}}</ref>
|rev5 = ''[[Kerrang!]]''
|rev5Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}<ref name="kerrang">{{cite magazine |title=Slippery Customers |magazine=[[Kerrang!]] |date=January 28, 1989 |last=Wilding|first=Phil |issue=223 |page=16 |issn=0262-6624 }}</ref>
|rev6 =''[[Los Angeles Times]]''
|rev6Score = {{Rating|1.5|4}}<ref name="Garza">{{cite web|last=Garza|first=Aniss|date=May 14, 1989|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-05-14-me-293-story.html|title=Pop Stars|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=June 8, 2016}}</ref>
|rev7=''[[Q (magazine)|Q]]''
|rev7score={{Rating|3|5}}<ref name="Q">{{cite web|url=http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=1097084&style=music|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130129225750/http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=1097084&style=music|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 29, 2013|title=Skid Row CD Album|publisher=[[CD Universe]]|access-date=February 19, 2013}}</ref>
|rev8 = ''[[Rock Hard (magazine)|Rock Hard]]'' 
|rev8score = 7.0/10<ref name="rockhard">{{cite magazine|last=Schäfer|first=Wolfgang|title=Review Album: Skid Row- Skid Row|url=https://www.rockhard.de/megazine/reviewarchiv/review-anzeigen.html?tx_rxsearch_pi1%5Breview%5D=6289|issue=31|year = 1989| magazine = [[Rock Hard (magazine)|Rock Hard]] |access-date=July 20, 2018 | language=de}}</ref>
|rev9 = ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]''
|rev9score = {{rating|2.5|5}}<ref name="RSG">{{cite book |title=The Rolling Stone Album Guide |date=1992 |publisher=Random House |page=644}}</ref>
|rev10=[[Sputnikmusic]]
|rev10score={{Rating|4|5}}<ref name="Sputnik">{{cite web|first=Dave|last=Donnelly|title=Skid Row – Skid Row|url=https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/4808/Skid-Row-Skid-Row/|website=Sputnikmusic|date=January 16, 2006|access-date=June 20, 2011}}</ref>
}}

Upon its release in January 1989, ''Skid Row'' did not immediately connect with listeners and received mixed reviews from the music press.<ref name="Larkin"/> With the success of the "[[I Remember You (Skid Row song)|I Remember You]]" single which cracked the Billboard Top 10 in the autumn of 1989, the album took off and eventually sold over 5 million copies, establishing the band as one of the top metal acts of the late 80s. Phil Wilding of ''[[Kerrang!]]'' found the album quite formulaic, but wrote that the praises for Skid Row expressed by Bon Jovi band members and the range of diversity in their music were "a big hint that they could be something very special in the future."<ref name="kerrang"/> ''[[Q (magazine)|Q]]'' magazine described the album as a fusion of rock riffs and commercial hooks, and proclaimed it a notable debut.<ref name="Q"/> ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]'''s Erik Davis said ''Skid Row'' was slightly different from contemporary albums by [[Warrant (American band)|Warrant]] and [[Great White]] because it contained less "fake-gutter narratives of sluts and bad boys", and instead leaned more towards Bon Jovi's earnest anthems.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Davis|first=Erik| author-link=Erik Davis| title=Skid Row – Skid Row|magazine=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]|date=July 1989|volume=5|issue=4|page=114|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D2y5iVad5loC&q=skid+row+spin&pg=PA114|access-date=June 6, 2016}}</ref> Aniss Garza was more critical in the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', finding the record "highly unoriginal" and lacking any lyrical substance or musical ingenuity.<ref name="Garza"/> [[Robert Christgau]] in his negative review remarked how the band attempted some social commentary and was not "offensively sexist" if only by heavy metal standards, jokingly saying that the disreputable women in the songs were at least "characters rather than objects".<ref name="CG"/> ''[[Rock Hard (magazine)|Rock Hard]]'' reviewer wrote that this album is an example of how "independence and originality are by no means as in demand" in the US music world as the following of the "success schemes" established by bands like [[Guns N' Roses]], with only a couple of good songs saving it from "sad mediocrity".<ref name="rockhard"/>

Modern reviews are generally more positive. Canadian journalist [[Martin Popoff]] described the album as a "basic well-executed corporate metal feast" and praised Bach's performance for carrying the record and "raising the average to something worth reckoning."<ref name="martin" /> He  thought Skid Row represented a "grittier, more street version of hair metal", unlike its California-based peers.<ref>{{cite book|last=Popoff|first=Martin|author-link=Martin Popoff|title=The Big Book of Hair Metal: The Illustrated Oral History of Heavy Metal's Debauched Decade|date=2014|publisher=[[Voyageur Press]]|isbn=978-0-7603-4546-7|page=162}}</ref> [[AllMusic]]'s Steve Huey classified the album as "typical pop-metal fluff" of the late 1980s, but praised it for the consistent songwriting and said Bach's vocals gave the songs the much-needed nasty attitude.<ref name="AM"/> Sputnikmusic's Dave Donnelly considered Skid Row one of the more talented bands of the glam era because of its charismatic frontman, and described the group's debut as mainly a "party album" best remembered for its ballads.<ref name="Sputnik"/> The critical and commercial success of ''Skid Row'' made the band a regular feature in rock magazines such as ''[[Hit Parader]]'', ''[[Circus (magazine)|Circus]]'', and ''[[Metal Edge]]'' in the late 1980s and early 1990s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Klosterman|first=Chuck|author-link=Chuck Klosterman|title=Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota|date=2007|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|isbn=978-0-7432-0227-5|page=103}}</ref>

In 2022, [[Loudwire]] placed the album at No. 4 on their list of the ''Top 30 Hair Metal Albums'', saying Skid Row "were decidedly more edgy [than other hair metal bands of the decade], focusing more on razor sharp riffs than razor-slashed stage wear".<ref>{{Cite web |last=DiVita |first=Joe|date=2022-10-24 |title=Top 30 Hair Metal Albums |url=https://loudwire.com/top-hair-metal-albums/ |access-date=2024-11-11 |website=Loudwire |language=en}}</ref>