- Record Label: Virgin
- Release Date: Sep 2, 2003
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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More gutsy, more aggressive, and more dynamic than B.R.M.C.
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Alternative PressTake Them On... repeats the San Francisco trio's bombast, peppered with slower tunes styled after Jesus And Mary Chain's dewy psychedelia, the Verve's noise-drenched moments and even Ride's droning perfection. [Oct 2003, p.134]
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BlenderThe dark spaciousness that boosted BRMC's uneven 2001 debut is replaced with garage-rock fist pumpers, which are all catchy but cramped. [Sep 2003, p.119]
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A skull-numbingly dull record, utterly bereft of the anti-establishment rhetoric these boring fakers aspire to.
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The band's equally impressive second album grooves with both a Detroit hipster sound and some spacey atmosphere.
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Entertainment WeeklyForm largely trumps meaning here: Take Them is as well suited to making out or breaking the speed limit as soundtracking an antiwar rally. [5 Sep 2003, p.74]
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FilterEven though it's more than good, you eventually find yourself thumbing through your CD piles in search of that first record. [#7, p.87]
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The band sounds filthy and scorching.
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This is still an excellent band composed of three excellent musicians who can produce one hell of a noise.
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MojoPowerful and anthemic, the trio's driving, Goth-forsaken rock can also be overwhelming and cloying. [Sep 2003, p.99]
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'Take Them On, On Your Own' is a masterpiece. You should get hold of it as soon as possible.
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Anyone with any vague taste in good music needs to own this album, right now.
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OutburnBRMC continue on a predictable arc, borrowing heavily from Psychocandy-era Jesus & Mary Chain melodies, coked-up Rolling Stones licks, and My Bloody Valentine's production values. [#23, p.88]
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Fortunately, there are a handful of transcendent moments to be found, provided you're willing to invest the time it takes to sniff them out-- which you should, since this is one of those records that matures with subsequent spins.
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On a first listen it sounds very long. On a second listen it sounds just like the eponymous debut, with the odd anthem missing. On a third listen we have to concede there are some fine moments.
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Take Them On, On Your Own is a good album, but some may be disappointed with just how much the band plays it safe.
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Q MagazineThere's a lack of emotional intrigue or maverick charm here that keeps everything at a shrug-inducing distance. [Sep 2003, p.100]
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Original it's not. But it still sounds awfully good while it's happening.
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In streamlining the elements of B.R.M.C., it jettisons the wrong half of the equation, eschewing substance for angular, affected form.
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More varied and satisfying than its predecessor.
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Their no-surrender stance is admirable, but Black Rebel haven't a hope of leading the people's revolution because they are so self-consciously reverential, with each narcotic outburst owing its existence to the Pistols and the Jesus and Mary Chain.
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The slower numbers (“Ha Ha High Babe,” “Shade of Blue”) rely less on showy atmosphere and more on loose guitar accents, which makes the whole affair earthier, rawer, more real.
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UncutThey run out of steam completely towards the end.... But there's still plenty here to justify giving up your heart to that simple chord all over again. [Sep 2003, p.110]
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Under The RadarWhere B.R.M.C. merely boiled, Take Them On is positively frothing. [#5, p.100]
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The sheer mass of sound, the density, the volume, the elaborate little codas at the end of every song are designed to impress and certainly do.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 18 out of 19
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Mixed: 0 out of 19
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Negative: 1 out of 19
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KarlMarxMay 30, 2005
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ShireenHMay 22, 2004
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joycewNov 20, 2003I've never heard their first cd but after hearing "Take Them On..." I've got to go buy the first. They have got a dark sound that I love.