- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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This willfully noisy, messy album is ultimately just as contrived as the band's glossier sound was, and the shift from The Guest's winsome pop -- which was also a shift from their debut's heavily Weezer-influenced sound -- makes it difficult to get a grip on the band.
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Alternative PressPhantom Planet are shooting for something a bit less sunny here than their last outing. [Mar 2004, p.106]
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Blender[Several songs] sound way too much like Strokes castoffs, a situation little helped by... Fridmann's unusually heavy-handed production. [Mar 2004, p.125]
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The change may shock fans, but Phantom Planet wears the shaggy tunes well.
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The album is absurdly derivative -- songs like ''You're Not Welcome Here'' and ''By the Bed'' could be Strokes outtakes -- but something about its restless energy and sense of what-the-hell surprise is commendable.
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Phantom Planet, although obviously representing a group still searching for its sonic niche, nonetheless manages to entertain, perhaps proving there can be life after "California."
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MojoThe whole affair comes off like a desperate bit of trend trawling. [Feb 2004, p.99]
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A record of overwhelming deconstruction and newly explored territorial demarcation.
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This album is like expert plastic surgery -- you know some of it may be artificial, but damn, ain't it good?
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Q MagazineThis is as cynical a mish-mash of popular trends as you can imagine. [May 2004, p.106]
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What Phantom Planet lack in stripped-down hooks they make up for with a full-bodied guitar attack and big, bloodletting choruses.
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SpinAmbitious, uneven. [Feb 2004, p.96]
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The relentlessness of the pillaging becomes one of the album’s virtues—each song wildly varies from the next, revealing thirty-five minutes of noise and pop that extends far beyond the surface into a slowly decaying singalong monster.
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Whether Phantom Planet will be the second coming of Cheap Trick remains to be seen, but for now, it neatly fills the void for trashy, catchy power pop left by Urge Overkill's premature burnout.
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The songs are better than solid. They're catchier than catchy. These songs are just good.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 12 out of 14
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Mixed: 2 out of 14
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Negative: 0 out of 14
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SeamusSJan 25, 2006One of the few albums in recent years I can honestly call an inspired Masterpiece. No pretention, heavy, tight, brilliant
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amytSep 12, 2004i think its amazing. their albums are always always fantastic
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JebJApr 14, 2004