The Third Hand

This article is about the album. For other uses, see Third hand (disambiguation).

The Third Hand is the third studio album by RJD2.^[1] It was released on XL Records on March 6, 2007.^[2] It peaked at number 190 on the Billboard 200 chart,^[3] number 5 on the Heatseekers Albums chart,^[4] and number 23 on the Independent Albums chart.^[5] The Third Hand Instrumentals, an instrumental version of the album, was also released in 2007.^[6][7]

The Third Hand
Studio album by RJD2
Released	March 6, 2007 (2007-03-06)
Genre	Hip hop electronic rock pop
Length	47:05
Label	XL Recordings
Producer	RJD2
RJD2 chronology
Magnificent City (2006) The Third Hand (2007) The Colossus (2010)
Singles from The Third Hand
"You Never Had It So Good" Released: 2007 "Work It Out" Released: 2007

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	60/100[2]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[6]
The A.V. Club	B−[8]
Billboard	mixed[9]
MusicOMH	[10]
NME	5/10[11]
Pitchfork	3.7/10[12]
PopMatters	[13]
Spin	mixed[14]
Stylus Magazine	C+[15]

At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 60, based on 28 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[2]

Noel Murray of The A.V. Club gave the album a grade of B−, saying: "About half of The Third Hand is given over to dub exercises and soundtrack-ready soundscapes, while the other half pushes fairly conventional alt-pop, heavy on the Beatles-esque flourishes."^[8] Dave Heaton of PopMatters gave the album 5 stars out of 10, saying: "You may have to listen past a few layers to be satisfied, but there is a level of satisfaction to be found."^[13]

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Intro"	1:00
2.	"You Never Had It So Good"	4:04
3.	"Have Mercy"	3:18
4.	"Reality"	3:01
5.	"Work It Out"	3:26
6.	"Laws of the Gods"	2:10
7.	"Get It"	3:30
8.	"Someday"	1:22
9.	"The Bad Penny"	4:04
10.	"Beyond the Beyond"	3:57
11.	"Sweet Piece"	4:00
12.	"Rules for Normal Living"	4:03
13.	"Paper Bubbles"	2:49
14.	"Just When"	3:28
15.	"The Evening Gospel"	2:53
Total length:		47:05

iTunes edition bonus tracks

No.	Title	Length
16.	"The Past Time"	9:22
17.	"The Wilderness"	3:42
Total length:		60:09

Charts

Chart	Peak position
US Billboard 200[3]	190
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard)[4]	5
US Independent Albums (Billboard)[5]	23