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Fire
by Electric Six

Electric Six reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 70 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.3 out of 10
based on 20 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 17 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

Featuring guitarists named Rock and Roll Indian and Surge Joebot, the latest indie-rock sensation to come out of Detroit combines punk, new-wave and disco on this debut full-length. Included here is a new version of their hit single "Danger! High Voltage" with the White Stripes' Jack White on backing vocals.

LABEL: Beggars Banquet / XL
RELEASE DATE: 20 May 2003
DISCS: 1 disc
GENRE(S): Indie, Rock

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

91
Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
They exist only to rock your world. If you don't let them, you're the stupid one.
Read Full Review
90
The Onion (A.V. Club)
To a certain extent, Fire sounds like a joke, but a pointed one that approaches rock less as a conceit than as a directive, something to drag into its cultural surroundings rather than a trope to fall back on.
Read Full Review
90
Outburn
The Electric Six have a knack for mixing a dash of Saturday Night Fever with a whole lot of MC5 and just a smidgen of Jack Black. [#23, p.87]
80
Mojo
The result is ZZ Top's Eliminator meets The Best of Chic. [Jun 2003, p.112]
80
Urb
It's a raucous rave-up of arena rock riffs over funky disco beats, the kind of freaky dance-rock jams that belong on the jukebox in every gay biker bar in America. [Jul 2003, p.91]
80
Amazon.com
Electric Six is the most exciting band to come tumbling out of Detroit since Kiss.
Read Full Review
80
Village Voice
This is the funniest hard-rock album I've ever heard; also, the hardest-rocking funny album I've ever heard, since if you take away the jokes you've still got the power of the music.
Read Full Review
80
Rolling Stone
The summer's most brilliantly demented party record.
Read Full Review
80
All Music Guide
Electric Six's m.o. of inflating rock clichés to grotesque proportions, adding a dash of tongue-in-cheek pomposity, and then laughing at the results can generate more than just a great single. Granted, that single is still the reason to own Fire, but fans of that song probably won't feel burned by the rest of the album.
Read Full Review
80
Blender
Two things save Electric Six from becoming the alt-rock Weird Al: Their jokes hit home and their music is convincingly ferocious. [#17, p.134]
70
Playlouder
If you're bored of 'Danger! High Voltage' like us, there's plenty to plunder, though ultimately you'll be filing this album away in your "don't play anymore" library after Echobelly and before Electric Soft Parade.
Read Full Review
64
Stylus Magazine
Fire’s not something we’ll remember for long, but it is a surprisingly good album, with highlights that simply need to be heard.
Read Full Review
60
Q Magazine
It's... strangely coy, preferring to camp it up than give in to full-on indecency. Which isn't to say it doesn't have its moments. [Jul 2003, p.101]
60
The Guardian
At its best, Fire proves they could easily escape the novelty tag. At its worst, it seems as if they don't particularly want to.
Read Full Review
60
Under The Radar
A guilty pleasure. [#5, p.108]
60
PopMatters
First, the good news: They're this year's Andrew W.K. The bad news: They're this year's Andrew W.K.
Read Full Review
40
Dot Music
Had they imploded in some bizarre gardening accident following the release of 'Danger! High Voltage' all would be forgiven. That single still sounds classic and retains the power to get Aunt Peggy off her seat at the wedding reception..... However, the rest appears to be have been cobbled together in a matter of hours.
Read Full Review
40
Pitchfork
As good as "Danger! High Voltage" is, the rest of this album is simply not worth it.
Read Full Review
40
Uncut
Repeated plays reveal little charm and less real humour. [Aug 2003, p.97]
10
Splendid
A novelty act, a misfire and a waste of time.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this album is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 17 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Michael C gave it a10:
Any critic that gave this less than 80, is deaf. Also a liar. This album changed mt life. Buy it or regret it forever

Ben K gave it a10:
This is as well crafted a debut as Television's Marquee Moon or Talking Head's '77.

Luke gave it a9:
Classic 80's rock with the sexiness of disco and fastfood on it's bibliography: I love it.

Em W gave it a10:
Proof that critics are a pile of complete wank. What a bunch of tossers for slating this truly brilliant album, i play it all the time. . . Get your ass on the floor & start throwing some shapes already! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! BUY IT NOW! ! !

Byronius Punk gave it a 9:
More proof critics suck...if you don't want to get up and shake yo' ass, or knock something over, or dry hump the person next to you (or at least fantasize about doing so), you've got no feelings. NONE. "Dance Commander" and "Getting into the Jam" are hot, hot, hot tracks. "Danger! Danger! High Voltage" may be the reason you know the band, but there are several other solid tracks on here worth the $9.99 it costs to pick up this CD at Tower.

rob a gave it an 8:
This is cool, everyone should stop over-analysing it and just enjoy it!

Piranha G. gave it a 10:
Very funny album!

Read more user comments...

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