> Switch to Advanced Search

New & Current Releases
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
All-Time High (And Low) Scores
Best Of 2008
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
Best Of 2003
Best Of 2002
Best Of 2001
Best Of 2000
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Music In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

64 A Camp
78 Akron/Family
73 Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women
74 Amazing Baby
62 Tori Amos
54 The Answer
74 Anti-Flag
74 Art Brut
71 Au Revoir Simone
65 Zee Avi
70 Bachelorette
77 Bat For Lashes
68 Big Business
76 Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses
67 Black Dice
57 Black Eyed Peas
74 Black Moth Super Rainbow
71 Blank Dogs
65 Booker T.
54 The Boxmasters
65 The Boy Least Likely To
74 Brakes [aka brakesbrakesbrakes]
68 British Sea Power
66 Jeff Buckley
75 Busdriver
59 Busta Rhymes
64 Cage The Elephant
82 Bill Callahan
80 Camera Obscura
68 Cam'ron
79 Casiotone For The Painfully Alone
58 Chester French
82 The Church
61 Ciara
72 Clues
69 The Coathangers
74 Jarvis Cocker
90 Leonard Cohen
70 Elvis Costello
66 Graham Coxon
76 Crippled Black Phoenix
71 The Crocodiles
69 Cryptacize
71 Crystal Antlers
56 The Crystal Method
69 Dananananaykroyd
76 Danger Mouse And Sparklehorse
71 De La Soul
77 Death Cab For Cutie
68 Deer Tick
81 Deerhunter
70 Depeche Mode
78 Dinosaur Jr.
85 Dirty Projectors
86 DJ Quik & Kurupt
77 Doves
68 Dredg
76 Bob Dylan
82 Steve Earle
70 Eels
62 El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez
58 Eminem
60 Empire Of The Sun
54 The Enemy
67 Jeremy Enigk
68 Nathan Fake
85 The Felice Brothers
79 The Field
65 Fink
60 Fischerspooner
77 Flatlanders
62 Flo Rida
64 Franz Ferdinand
77 Gallows
72 Melody Gardot
59 Ginuwine
71 Golden Silvers
61 Gomez
69 Grand Duchy
73 Great Lake Swimmers
59 Great Northern
72 Green Day
86 Grizzly Bear
75 The Handsome Family
69 Ben Harper And Relentless7
75 PJ Harvey & John Parish
66 Heaven & Hell
85 Levon Helm
74 The Hold Steady
79 Patterson Hood
75 Jon Hopkins
82 The Horrors
69 Hanne Hukkelberg
74 Ida Maria
65 Immaculate Machine
75 The Intelligence
76 Iron & Wine
79 Isis
68 It Hugs Back
88 J Dilla aka Jay Dee
61 Jadakiss
86 Japandroids
61 Joan Of Arc
84 Joe Lovano Us Five
72 John Doe & The Sadies
70 Joker's Daughter
62 Jonas Brothers
53 Mike Jones
71 The Juan Maclean
76 Junior Boys
68 Kasabian
74 Diana Krall
56 Lady Sovereign
43 Ben Lee
68 The Lemonheads
76 Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard
77 Lindstrom & Prins Thomas
65 Little Boots
79 The Low Anthem
67 Jason Lytle
75 The Maccabees
76 Magik Markers
80 Major Lazer
70 Malajube
71 Manchester Orchestra
85 Manic Street Preachers
57 Marilyn Manson
66 The Mars Volta
68 Dave Matthews Band
62 Maximo Park
70 Meat Puppets
80 Method Man & Redman
77 Metric
75 Micachu & The Shapes
69 Chrisette Michele
76 Miike Snow
67 Mika Miko
75 Rhett Miller
49 Mims
72 Mr. Lif
72 Moby
78 Moderat
70 Mandy Moore
80 Mos Def
70 Bob Mould
74 Nadja
72 New York Dolls
72 Nite Jewel
67 NOFX
76 Noisettes
60 Paolo Nutini
67 Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band
74 Papercuts
76 Passion Pit
74 Peaches
71 Pet Shop Boys
68 Peter Bjorn And John
82 Phoenix
76 Pink Mountaintops
63 Placebo
66 Pomegranates
64 Iggy Pop
67 Prefuse 73
81 Ramblin' Jack Elliott
76 Rancid
54 Rascal Flatts
68 Lionel Richie
77 Alasdair Roberts
73 Rick Ross
55 Asher Roth
72 Savath & Savalas
61 Polly Scattergood
65 The Shortwave Set
60 Shout Out Out Out Out
66 Silversun Pickups
85 Todd Snider
78 Sonic Youth
72 The Soundcarriers
61 The Sounds
74 Regina Spektor
63 Spinal Tap
65 Spinnerette
81 St. Vincent
59 Still Flyin'
58 Street Sweeper Social Club
87 Sunn O)))
82 Sunset Rubdown
84 Super Furry Animals
74 Richard Swift
78 Taking Back Sunday
85 Tanya Morgan
81 Otis Taylor
71 Telekinesis
70 Telepathe
80 Thee Oh Sees
79 The Thermals
74 Rob Thomas
64 Thunderheist
74 Tiga
57 Tinted Windows
72 Tortoise
82 Allen Toussaint
71 Trembling Bells
69 Two Fingers
84 UGK
68 Keith Urban
71 John Vanderslice
85 The Vaselines
74 The Veils
73 Viva Voce
63 Patrick Watson
79 White Denim
77 White Rabbits
57 The Whitest Boy Alive
74 Wilco
80 Wildbirds & Peacedrums
78 Wolves In The Throne Room
65 The Wooden Birds
67 Wooden Shjips
81 Yeah Yeah Yeahs
70 Pete Yorn
93 Neil Young
60 Neil Young
72 Yusuf

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Elect The Dead
by Serj Tankian


8.5

based on 19 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 51 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

Official Artist Site

The System of a Down singer's solo debut album features fellow bandmate John Dolmayan on drums, along with players from Primus and opera singer Ani Maldjian.

LABEL:	Warner Bros
RELEASE DATE:	23 October 2007
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Rock, Alternative

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...

Entertainment Weekly

Factor in politics, social commentary, and highly individualistic posey, and Elect gets our vote for the liveliest mixed-bag marvel of the season. [26 Oct 2007, p.69]

All Music Guide

It's an ambitious egotistical solo release, and one with the chops to pull it all off. The well placed spaces and lithe textural moments of delicate instrumental engagement and interlude prevent Elect the Dead from going by in a blur.

Billboard

Elect the Dead, his first full-length solo effort, boasts the same kind of arty arrangements and cascading dynamics as SOAD's ouvre, a sign that while guitarist Daron Malakian is often considered the band's mad genius, Tankian's elastic, expressive vocals are as integral to its character.

Blender

He's screaming louder than ever on his solo CD, but what's notable is how all the titanium riffs and loud-soft-loud dynamics now feel personalized, a little cozier and multihued than on SOAD record. [Nov 2007, p.157]

Observer Music Monthly

Tankian has always got one more surprise up his sleeve. But his scatter-shot approach does not detract from the acuity of his polemical insights

The New York Times

while System of a Down would have given these songs more sheer brawn, Mr. Tankian’s versions are the next best thing.

Mojo

Tankian has created a forward-thinking album that swerves convention. [Dec 2007, p.98]

Spin

Tankian may be taking a break from System of a Down, but his solo debut hardly favors wimpy love songs over political jeremiads. [Nov 2007, p.125]

PopMatters

For the most part, though, he’s more disciplined than he’s ever sounded throughout the entire disc, not allowing his personality distract from the richness of the musical arrangements.

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Tankian hasn't yet mastered the art of editing himself for time: Inspiring as its genre-jumping is in spurts, Elect The Dead gains and loses momentum enough that even fans may not stick around long enough for the best parts.

The Phoenix

In SOAD, Tankian’s vocal gymnastics and penchant for subversive lyrics are kept somewhat in check by the mix of muscle and subtlety guitarist Daron Malakian brings to the table. Here, there’s nothing to hold him back.

The Guardian

Here, without the berserk velocity of System's guitarist Daron Malakian, he is a little more conventional and a little less interesting.

New Musical Express

Elect The Dead is both impressive and bewildering--almost as if SOAD's wildest excesses have been standardised.

NOW Magazine

His ambition is never entirely realized, and though his voice is versatile, his almost operatic style at times borders on annoying.

Q Magazine

There are too few of the brilliant genre-blending moments that make SOAD so special. [Nov 2007, p.147]

Rolling Stone

Elect the Dead mostly sounds like a random smattering of ideas, many of them undercooked.

Drowned In Sound

It's not that bad an album--it's executed with all the gumption you'd expect from the SOAD mainman--but if you've heard any of the band's previous output you just don't need this in your collection.

Uncut

Tankian combines prog pomp and a variety of vocal techniques, all irritating, to uniformly unlistenable effect. [Nov 2007, p.125]

Lost At Sea

It would almost be pretty or epic if Tankian hadn't done this sort of thing ten times over already: nonsensical title, half-time verses balladeered in a faux-operatic style before rushing into the "unpredictable" chorus, which is uncomfortably wordier than ever I might add.

The average user rating for this album is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 51 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mkrtich M. gave it a10:
Absolutely awesome, the spiritual nature of every song brings the listener to peace and gives them a sense of happiness. Awesome rock album. Awesome feeling.

Justin S. gave it a10:
An epic album by an epic man!

Yoh F. gave it a9:
Surprisingly different from SOAD methodic berserk style : guitars and rythms feel softer and even smooth. Voices are awesome, melodies too. Funny/exotic weird intruments here and there. Serj's music's definitely inspired and builds a very interesting world. If you look for most brutal SOAD song types, forget it. If you seek for creative, genuine and subtle music, go for it!

Ben L. gave it a10:
This album is fabulous. I got started on SOAD back when they released SUGAR and I've been hooked on Serj's voice and his crazy sound ever since. This album allowed him to take over, and it's freaking great! Best album I have bought in years. Not very often can you put in a cd, start at track 1, and listen to the whole damn thing and jam out the whole damn time! Awesome album!

Joe V. gave it a10:
Great, album. Refreshing twist from SOAD.

Tim T. gave it a2:
I'm sorry, really really sorry and sad about this absolutely empty album that Serj has thrown together... together with the deftones, System of a down have been breaking the rules of metal and reinventing it with every new release. But this is utter boredom he just whines and bickers and we are left with absolutely no music to speak of. his songs bounce around and dont land together... just wailing, he clearly needs his lead guitarist to make the music that SOAD have been giving us all this time...

James A. gave it a5:
This album sounds like Mezmerize or Hypnotize minus the spontaneity and aggression of System of a Down. So all that is left is a bunch of annoying tunes with the same lyrical themes as you have come to expect from Mr. Tankian. Disappionting.

Elect The Dead by Serj Tankian

Elect The Dead
by Serj Tankian