• Record Label: Sub Pop
  • Release Date: May 22, 2007
Metascore
72

Generally favorable reviews - based on 19 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 19
  2. Negative: 0 out of 19
  1. Where Wolf Parade dips into more than their fair share of upbeat, even disco beat-driven, music, Handsome Furs instead pull back and strip down their songs.
  2. In terms of Wolf Parade side projects, this one is no more trying than Swan Lake or Frog Eyes, but it's obviously nowhere near as immediate as work from the main group.
  3. Alternative Press
    80
    A strong new contender in the side project derby. [Jul 2007, p.168]
  4. The nine tracks run a tad samey-same, but that's at least part of their charm. They and assert Boeckner anew as a prescient, skeptical voice, coarsely toned and draped in machine-sounding music even as he inveighs against the post-modern world--technology and urban living and traffic and so on.
  5. Plague Park is in many ways a darker, less inviting listen than his previous work.
  6. Plague Park possesses an unsightly surface layer of cluttered sound and alien screeches that require swift penetrating to enjoy the sticky gooiness that resides within.
  7. Plague Park’s nine tracks seem to be over before they reach their potential. The record gets better as it progresses, and successive listens reveal more interesting facets to the songwriting.
  8. 78
    Beck-ish vocals kick through the facade of slow and steady rhythmic pacing to reveal an emotional potency hiding behind the often formulaic hum of Handsome Furs.
  9. It’s the lyrics that truly standout.
  10. It's almost as if, released from the role of playing less weird anchor to Spencer Krug's art rock savant, Boeckner's figured out how to maximize and expand what he does best.
  11. Boeckner most excels when he works alongside someone who provides a stronger contrast. In Wolf Parade, Spencer Krug helps provide that balance; without Boeckner's typical foil, the results remain impressive, if not quite as compelling.
  12. You probably won't remember the first time you hear Plague Park, but that's not because Boeckner and Perry have failed or their record's pleasures are few. It's simply that their goals are modest and their tools humble.
  13. For as well as the album's minimalism works, the kind of modern disconnection that the songs tap into is definitely something that could be fleshed out more.
  14. Plague Park shows him mostly nailing the fine bristle of “Modern World” and “Same Ghost Every Night.”
  15. At their best, though, Handsome Furs do for the disaffected what the Postal Service did for sentimental Death Cab cuties: they deliver more of something not quite the same.
  16. Under The Radar
    80
    The small moments are the most memorable. [Summer 2007, p.80]
User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 30 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 30
  2. Negative: 2 out of 30
  1. May 8, 2016
    10
    Years later and I still cannot get enough of this album, there is something so real and amazing about it. Better than any wolf parade albumYears later and I still cannot get enough of this album, there is something so real and amazing about it. Better than any wolf parade album in my book Full Review »
  2. ChrisW
    Apr 13, 2010
    6
    it's merely OK. It's not horrible and it's not great....it just sort of is.
  3. ChristianH
    Mar 4, 2009
    9
    All songs save Dumb Animals are easy to listen to continuously. I love this CD.