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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Secret Wars
Universal acclaim
Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Jagjaguwar
Release Date: 20 January 2004
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Summary
Brooklyn's Oneida has been around a bit longer (since 1997) than some of their fellow bands in the New York neo-garage/punk/new wave scene, and 'Secret Wars' marks their sixth LP.
Also By This Artist: Happy New Year Preteen Weaponry Rated O The Wedding
Also On The Web: Jagjaguwar
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...
Spin
They channel experimental noise, acid-drenched riffs, and live-show spontaneity into a record of brilliantly crafted nuggets of lysergic rock that is easily their most consistent effort to date.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
This bracing sixth full-length funnels the frenzy into more easily digestible bites. [6 Feb 2004, p.140]
Tiny Mix Tapes
These are eight rip-roaring, drag racing anthems mashed together with blood cakes and shards of bone.
Read Full Review >Splendid
Secret Wars is more than a good album. It's an incredible experience, taking you out of your daily life into a mysterious and mind-changing space.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
The sound is huge and intimate all at once; the songs have hooks and staying power.
Read Full Review >Alternative Press
A frenetic, opaque masterpiece that ranks in the upper echelons of post-rock primacy. [Apr 2004, p.96]
Stylus Magazine
Secret Wars feels like a keeper, like an album I’ll pull out and play and still love ten years from now.
Read Full Review >Uncut
Theirs is a maniacal mish-mash of seemingly incompatible musical styles--Krautrock, psychedelia, no-wave, prog, synth-pop, '70s stoner rock and punk--wrought from a deeply felt, genre-leaping love of challenge. [Feb 2004, p.80]
Village Voice
All in all, expertly wobbling prog metal, constructed out of as few chords as possible.
Read Full Review >Mojo
This time there's noticeably less fuzz and extraneous squall piled on top. [Feb 2004, p.92]
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Secret Wars clamors like past Oneida albums dating back to 1997, but it also shows a band mellowing out without losing its charge.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
Secret Wars is the first step toward the combination of Oneida's monolithic psych-rock and the numbing riff iteration they've spent so long deriving.
Read Full Review >Logo
‘Secret Wars’ is an engaging 40 minutes; a haphazard, likely to spontaneously combust at any moment 40 minutes to be sure, but that was the ethic that spawned rock ‘n’ roll in the first place and in these hands there’s plenty of life in it yet.
Read Full Review >Playlouder
They actually sound like they've elected to live in a cocoon full of aromatic candles, a huge collection of musty records, some drugs, some books, and a collection of mid eighties Peel sessions alphabetically labelled on TDK C90s.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
Secret Wars is a sobering demonstration of what repetition can do in the wrong hands, as the Brooklyn trio funnel the most endurance-testing excesses of Suicide, Can, Sonic Youth and stoner rock into a joyless, oppressive piece of work.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
dave s gave it an8:
One helluva pysch-rock noise as you could wish for. ideal for fans of Comets On Fire and ilk.
Bobby G gave it a9:
I don't remember listening something so heavy and yet melodic at he same time.
