• Record Label: V2
  • Release Date: Feb 18, 2003
Metascore
67

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 18
  2. Negative: 1 out of 18
  1. If the Datsuns' retro sound is currently getting them Strokes/Stripes levels of hype, their blow-the-doors-off passion should allow them to leave their peers in the dust.
  2. Watching this museum piece come to life in a sweaty dive might make for an amusing night out. But on disc, why settle for a third-generation Xerox when the original documents still exist?
  3. Uncut
    60
    It helps that these 10 primitive songs are excellent, and that The Datsuns attack them with such vehemently anti-ironic gusto. [Nov 2002, p.118]
  4. They rock hard and fast and damn the stylistic similarities, because they have as much energy and explosive tendencies that even the Stooges themselves showed back in their heyday.
  5. 'The Datsuns' is an album that could have been made in 1967, 1977 or 1987, but which, fortunately for them, was made in 2002.
  6. Mojo
    70
    [The Datsuns] do the rawk thing so well you can forgive them almost anything. [Dec 2002, p.106]
  7. Nothing terribly original here, but they do manage to kick out the jams with fervor and the kind of enthusiasm that only wavers when carpel-tunnel or rheumatism sets in.
  8. With so much apparent calculation involved, it makes sense that the group's self-titled debut is neither as good nor as bad as it might have been.
  9. Their rehashed rawk riffage is relentlessly enthralling, but their beat-you-over-the-head scream-tactics lend themselves to a sludgy sameness that, by album's end, has worn its welcome pencil-thin.
  10. 40
    The Datsuns' biggest problem isn't the style of music they're playing, though. It's the sub-standard quality of their songwriting, the uninspired performances on here and the fundamental lack of willingness to stretch beyond the safe confines of their older brothers' record collections.
  11. Retro rawk doesn't come much ballsier than this--or get much better.
  12. You've heard this album before then, but it's never sounded quite this crazed and pressed for time.
  13. Q Magazine
    80
    Like the '70s, then, but much more fun. [Nov 2002, p.98]
  14. The Datsuns re-create the sound of a beer- and weed-fueled Saturday night in 1973, borrowing and blending the revving guitar riffs and choked, macho vocals of Thin Lizzy, Bad Company, .38 Special, and on occasion, the hornier side of Led Zeppelin.
  15. With the roaring guitars and raucous attitude blaring from The Datsuns, it is tough not to crack a smile.
  16. It's pure driving music, the type that's fun to listen to while blasting through a deserted stretch of prairie highway, but it's also something you wind up immediately forgetting the second you stop for a bathroom break.
  17. It's exhilarating, daft and triggers spontaneous hair growth better than a vat of Pantene.
  18. If The Datsuns serve any purpose, it's to remind us that 70s glam/garage-rock was largely accountable for the abomination that was 80s hair-metal.
User Score
8.5

Universal acclaim- based on 15 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 15
  3. Negative: 2 out of 15
  1. DavidS
    Dec 22, 2005
    10
    If you're into pure rock and roll and amazing powerful riffs then it's outstanding.
  2. WilliamM
    Sep 6, 2003
    10
    FUCKING AWESOME, more great Kiwi Music
  3. Jen?
    Jun 1, 2003
    10
    Bloody Briliant! Love it