- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Overall, the songs are more accessible, with clearer melodies and less discordance. For many bands this would be a misstep, but it turns out that Q & Not U's penchant for the catchy is one of their best assets.
-
Even when there are plenty of other bands working in a similar style, Q and Not U remain more distinctive and harder to classify than many of their peers, which makes Power an exciting album and proof that the band has variety and vitality to spare.
-
New Musical Express (NME)This is the sound of the US underground realising that its message is easier to swallow if it has a smile on its face. [9 Oct 2004, p.56]
-
Power is only a slight variation on its predecessors, yet sounds more vibrant and alive than almost anything in the band's canon.
-
Power is, to say the least, hardly the collection of hard rockers that No Kill and Different Damage were. But with its lilt melodies, Davis' downplayed role, and the band's admission that, hey, a bassline here or there couldn't hurt, Power boasts a cohesion and distinct identity missing from Q & Not U's two previous albums.
-
At times, the music on Power sounds like an ultra-violent collision between Fugazi and The Rapture.
-
Luckily, the band doesn’t cave into the dance-punk trend without expanding upon its current ubiquity with skillful songwriting and risky avoidance of testosterone.
-
Power announces a change from the get-go, fast-forwarding through punk's often-tired gambits and--sometimes tentatively, sometimes with impressive assurance--shimmying around the dance floor with only occasional furtive glances at the exit.
-
Littering their album with frail songwriting and all but killing off the aggression of their percussion, the band inexplicably jump into ill-advised stylistic misfires---with a few too many missed falsetto notes.
-
Most of the songs on Power are quite impressive, and a good number are excellent, but there are some songs that were probably better left in the studio.
-
Power is one more entry into an increasingly strong catalogue of widely varied danceable punk rock and should do little to disappoint fans.
-
Alternative PressIf you're confused and bewildered by Power, you're probably not alone. [Dec 2004, p.146]
-
Under The RadarIt can't quite replicate the experience [of their live show]. [#8, p.111]
-
We can see Power as a breakthrough provided that we do not think about the DFA, !!! or Out Hud, or Les Savy Fav. Unfortunately, Q and Not U do not have much to add to what those bands have already done.
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 5 out of 7
-
Mixed: 0 out of 7
-
Negative: 2 out of 7
-
seantAug 12, 2005newly discovered vocal harmonies and synth lines add to Q and not U's "post-punk" DC sound well.
-
NelsonBDec 3, 2004
-
leemNov 12, 2004