Go Plastic
by Squarepusher
  • Record Label: Warp
  • Release Date: Jun 26, 2001
Metascore
70

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 17
  3. Negative: 0 out of 17
  1. Playlouder
    100
    The album is a parasite, a pollutant, and should be kept well away from children and old people.
  2. Splendid
    90
    Few electronic artists working today have the balls or the skills to pull off an album as unconventional and uncompromising as Go Plastic...
  3. L.A. Weekly
    90
    His best effort yet.
  5. Alternative Press
    90
    Go Plastic fuses the insanely intricate beat programming of Feed Me Weird Things and Daddy with the abstruse experimentation of 1998's Music is Rotted One Note. It's the best of both worlds. [Aug 2001, p.98]
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  6. PopMatters
    80
    Fast and furious with moments of melodic intimacy, it is music for the intelligent and adventurous.
  7. CDNow
    80
    In anybody else's hands, a blending of techy aesthetics and near-tender melodies would be a musical oxymoron, but in Squarepusher's, it is delicious.
  8. The Wire
    80
    What's striking is that he's less wacky than he's ever been, instead pursuing a rougher, more complex sound. [#208, p.66]
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  9. Mojo
    60
    An album which makes his previous excesses seem conservative.... Dazzling though this bombardment is, it's a draining experience. [Jul 2001, p.97]
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  10. Sonicnet
    60
    The album is short on the wistful melodies and jazz overtones that have made Squarepusher stand out from his fellow post-everything experimentalists, making Go Plastic -- notwithstanding "My Red Hot Car" -- something of a disappointment.
  11. Q Magazine
    60
    Tom Jenkinson shares Aphex Twin's mischievous way with a beat but lacks his respect for melody. [Aug 2001, p.141]
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  12. Blender
    60
    It's all clever and overstuffed with ideas, guaranteed to bug dance-music purists just as much as it annoys their parents. [Aug/Sep 2001, p.130]
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  13. Urb
    60
    It's a mix of contemporary hardcore and vintage Squarepusher where he never lets things settle, scrabbling away with sublime and obnoxious results. [Sep 2001, p.152]
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  14. Mixer
    60
    Quite an experiment in not only the limits of drum 'n' bass, but listenability as well. [Jul 2001, p.81]
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  15. Pitchfork
    51
    Go Plastic exhumes the corpse of stuttering, fast-paced percussion and arbitrary programming that was bled dry and buried in a time when the Y2K bug still signified economic collapse and nuclear meltdowns.
  16. Resonance
    50
    The album disappoints. [#32, p.58]
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  17. Neumu.net
    40
    The glassy-eyed micro-manic bass-'n'-breaks belligerence on show-offy tracks on this Squarepusher longplayer is either tellingly tired or terrifically tiring, with Jenx's wicked licks of brown-note boogie either spuriously slow in the foot or a swift kick to the collective ass of a collectively ass-kissing musical community.
  18. Rolling Stone
    40
    For sheer virtuosity, you gotta hand it to the guy - he sure can make a lot of really weird noises. But who cares?

Awards & Rankings

93
#93 Most Discussed Album of 2001

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 18 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 18
  3. Negative: 1 out of 18
  1. JayW
    Apr 4, 2006
    10
    it's just so amazing ,a great D'n'B album ever made
  2. chrisMed
    Nov 15, 2005
    10
    Now that I have had the past half decade to familiarize myself with all of Tom's work and have deliberated endlessly about which of his Now that I have had the past half decade to familiarize myself with all of Tom's work and have deliberated endlessly about which of his works is his greatest. I have little doubt left that this is truly his masterwork. Do You Know SP? had a better "single" leadoff track but this album had it all. Awesome lead track, some of his craziest work ever and really the best collage of tracks from any of his albums. There are just no duds on this one like there are occasionaly on all his other albums... not a missable moment here. Track to track there is also a lot of variation and probably something for every experimental electronic fan. CHOICE… Full Review »
  3. DonaldO.F
    Jan 18, 2004
    10
    imho the best album ever by mr T.J.
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