• Record Label: Anti
  • Release Date: Apr 8, 2008
Metascore
74

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 21
  2. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. Rabbit Habits struck me most where it rescues the jazziness that's sorely missing from 2006's "Six Demon Bag." At the same time, though, the band continues to develop some productive tendencies from that sophomore outing.
  2. Filter
    86
    While the band still has its head in the clouds, or beyond, it has made its finest, most listenable album to date. [Spring 2008, p.98]
  3. They're brainy about their alienation, they're funny about their alienation, and when they bitch about their relationships their post- or pre-alt normality is exceptionally refreshing.
  4. It's still not exactly accessible, but it's their easiest listen to date, and a damn amazing and amusing one, if you're feeling creative.
  5. Alternative Press
    80
    Peeling back the layers of boom-zydeco and soulcholia on songs like 'El Azteca' and 'Easy Eats Or Dirty Doctor Galapogos,' you'll find a ramshackle genius in the bans's new wave kitchen-rock. [May 2008, p.134]
  6. They are what rock ’n’ roll is meant to be and, frankly, what most rock bands have forgotten altogether: These songs are fun.
  7. Habits has little to apologize for, no serious blemishes or ill-advised shifts in direction.
  8. Under The Radar
    80
    Man Man seem to have captured that energy [in live shows] on their third, and best, album. [Spring 2008, p.78]
  9. Rabbit Habits strikes a similarly winning equilibrium between quirk for quirk's sake and pure, bacchanalian abandon.
  10. After a boisterous first half, the backside of the album is a spiraling descent toward a grim and decimated collective soul. It’s both frightening and strangely captivating.
  11. Although the production isn’t what it would be if my dreams were made reality, Rabbit Habits is a respectable re-creation with chops cookin’ allova the place.
  12. Rabbit Habits, the Philadelphia group's first for Anti-, turns down the amps, reduces the Jolt intake, and generally bids for newfound maturity and restraint. The surprise is that it mostly works.
  13. The exhumed-vaudevillian theatrics are still here, but by now they're starting to sound almost natural.
  14. By and large, though, the players justify their flightiness.
  15. Blender
    70
    The tunes are basically chants and the drumming is more straight-ahead than "tribal" and when the vibraphone trips in after 40 seconds of 'The Ballad of Butter Bean,' you may not bust a gut laughing, but you'll probably grin. [June 2008, p.75]
  16. The album's visual, an indie rock show tune on shrooms, but it's just difficult to take seriously hairy men smeared in war paint incoherently singing.
  17. If straightforward pop songs are what they seek, tightening up the rhythm section is absolutely essential, though here they’ve overstepped the line between “tightening” and “dumbing down completely.”
User Score
8.2

Universal acclaim- based on 14 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 14
  3. Negative: 1 out of 14
  1. MohandasC.
    Apr 14, 2008
    8
    Captures some of the insanity of their live performances.
  2. JeromeW.
    Apr 12, 2008
    10
    This is the best album I have ever heard. Genius in every fashion in such an original way.
  3. A.Nonymous
    Apr 12, 2008
    9
    This album is weird and eclectic, but you'll have no trouble dancing to it. It's the strangest pop record you'll hear this This album is weird and eclectic, but you'll have no trouble dancing to it. It's the strangest pop record you'll hear this year, but it's also one of the best. Full Review »