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PopMatters

This album is like expert plastic surgery -- you know some of it may be artificial, but damn, ain't it good?

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Tiny Mix Tapes

The songs are better than solid. They're catchier than catchy. These songs are just good.

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Pitchfork

A record of overwhelming deconstruction and newly explored territorial demarcation.

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E! Online

The change may shock fans, but Phantom Planet wears the shaggy tunes well.

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Spin

Ambitious, uneven. [Feb 2004, p.96]

Junkmedia

Phantom Planet, although obviously representing a group still searching for its sonic niche, nonetheless manages to entertain, perhaps proving there can be life after "California."

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Stylus Magazine

The relentlessness of the pillaging becomes one of the album’s virtues—each song wildly varies from the next, revealing thirty-five minutes of noise and pop that extends far beyond the surface into a slowly decaying singalong monster.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

Whether Phantom Planet will be the second coming of Cheap Trick remains to be seen, but for now, it neatly fills the void for trashy, catchy power pop left by Urge Overkill's premature burnout.

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Entertainment Weekly

The album is absurdly derivative -- songs like ''You're Not Welcome Here'' and ''By the Bed'' could be Strokes outtakes -- but something about its restless energy and sense of what-the-hell surprise is commendable.

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All Music Guide

This willfully noisy, messy album is ultimately just as contrived as the band's glossier sound was, and the shift from The Guest's winsome pop -- which was also a shift from their debut's heavily Weezer-influenced sound -- makes it difficult to get a grip on the band.

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Rolling Stone

What Phantom Planet lack in stripped-down hooks they make up for with a full-bodied guitar attack and big, bloodletting choruses.

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Blender

[Several songs] sound way too much like Strokes castoffs, a situation little helped by... Fridmann's unusually heavy-handed production. [Mar 2004, p.125]

Alternative Press

Phantom Planet are shooting for something a bit less sunny here than their last outing. [Mar 2004, p.106]

Mojo

The whole affair comes off like a desperate bit of trend trawling. [Feb 2004, p.99]

Q Magazine

This is as cynical a mish-mash of popular trends as you can imagine. [May 2004, p.106]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Seamus S gave it a10:
One of the few albums in recent years I can honestly call an inspired Masterpiece. No pretention, heavy, tight, brilliant

amy t gave it a 10:
i think its amazing. their albums are always always fantastic

Jeb J gave it a 9:
it takes a couple listens to grow on you, but once it does it's like a new appendage you can't do without. although the Strokes comparisons are perhaps inevitable, it's worth nothing that the stylistic shift between this album and the previous one shows a range and depth that wasn't evident between the 2 strokes albums. Phantom Planet have their own magpie sound, and the songs stand on their own merits. great lyrics, muscular rhythm section, fluid guitars, just an all around kick ass album

Christina gave it a 10:
Although this may really "only" be a 9.8 because there is some truth to it being a bit "uneven", I'm giving it a 10 because I am addicted to killer hooks and this album is chock-full of them.

Adam H gave it a 10:
Phantom Planet never ceases to amaze me; the way they manage to change, to grow , with each album is a trait not respected enough in modern music...I've been a fan since their first album dropped a few years ago, and it's awesome that the band is finally incorporating the sounds of some of their influences (like Television, The Clash, and Maroon 5) to create an entirely new sonic phenomenon; Alex's genuis really shines on this album, and the band can only get better from here.

Tommy K gave it a 10:
This album is just the beginning of phantom planet. This album is ust standing apart from the others, you gotta buy their new album.

luke b gave it an 8:
Darker, more brooding rock from these still very young and talented Californians. An obvious departure from their sing-songier sophomore effort "the guest," but truer I feel to the band's roots than most people tend to realize. It shows a great deal of depth and maturity of their sound that many critics have chosen to dismiss as calculated or lazy. To complain that the melodies have disappeared is what's lazy, for if these naysayers were to take the time to properly assess "phantom planet," they'd notice them in great abundance. Merely more difficult to find at first spin. Many have seemed somewhat disappointed with this album thus far, but the only disappointment I have found with it is that it wasn't longer. This record is awesome, and I highly recommend it.

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