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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Secret Wars

EMAILPRINTby Oneida

Oneida reviews
83
8.0 User Score:

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.

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...

100

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.

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91

Entertainment Weekly

This bracing sixth full-length funnels the frenzy into more easily digestible bites. [6 Feb 2004, p.140]

90

Tiny Mix Tapes

These are eight rip-roaring, drag racing anthems mashed together with blood cakes and shards of bone.

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90

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.

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90

All Music Guide

The sound is huge and intimate all at once; the songs have hooks and staying power.

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90

Alternative Press

A frenetic, opaque masterpiece that ranks in the upper echelons of post-rock primacy. [Apr 2004, p.96]

90

Delusions of Adequacy

Seriously fucked-up and seriously stunning.

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80

Stylus Magazine

Secret Wars feels like a keeper, like an album I’ll pull out and play and still love ten years from now.

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80

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]

80

Village Voice

All in all, expertly wobbling prog metal, constructed out of as few chords as possible.

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80

Mojo

This time there's noticeably less fuzz and extraneous squall piled on top. [Feb 2004, p.92]

80

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.

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80

Dusted Magazine

A schizophrenic mess of maypole folk and motorik drive.

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78

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.

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70

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.

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60

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.

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20

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.

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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.

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