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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Crystal Castles
by Crystal Castles


7.2

based on 22 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 15 votes
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Rate this album

MySpace

The debut full-length album for the Toronto duo of Ethan Kath and Alice Grass.

LABEL:	Last Gang
RELEASE DATE:	18 March 2008
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Electronic, Indie

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Delusions of Adequacy

With Crystal Castles’ infectious, eclectic music, this is easily one of the highlights of the year and a great addition to the super-genre that is electronic music.

New Musical Express

It is also, perhaps more importantly, an album absolutely overloaded with spine-tingling, pulse-quickening electro noises.

Prefix Magazine

Crystal Castles leaves its mark as an electro record that challenges, succeeding and failing all at once, and perhaps most important, never forgetting the primary goal of dance music.

Hot Press

Hotly tipped Canadian electro duo Crystal Castles deliver the goods on their debut album.

Drowned In Sound

Glass’s voice, too, is the same that’s been luring lusty seamen onto the rocks for millennia, but the way it and the drums are textured--so that the machines they’re passed through sound like they’re melting away--brings Crystal Castles to the outer edges of greatness.

All Music Guide

It's clear that Kath and Glass are already looking for more ways to expand on this familiar-sounding, edgy, innocent, menacing, bold, nuanced, and altogether striking debut.

Mojo

The benchmark for 2008's best electronic record has been set. [July 2008, p.102]

Pitchfork

They don't stay in one place for too long, but the body of the album can be distilled to an essence of the glassy, ten-lane stare of Last Exit with Ed Banger's egg-frying EQ.

Entertainment Weekly

Such blipping and beeping stay true to the pair's beginnings as an eight-bit band, but Crystal really pushes all the right buttons when factoring wistful melodies into its playful computer glitches. [21 Mar 2008, p.57]

Spin

Kath's hooky charms ease the ferocity of singer Alice Glass' panting wails and loopy, sarcastic screams. [Apr 2008, p.94]

Urb

Producer Ethan Fawn's dynamic overlays of crisp, factory-stomped melodic lines carry Glass's unintelligible lyrics straight to neon-lit nausea heaven.

Tiny Mix Tapes

Every song is serrated with pixel edges, and Alice Glass’ sometimes morose, sometimes lilting like a Valley girl vocals vibrate with such catchy and violent gloom that it’d send any human/marmoset/sentient being into an epileptic dance session.

Under The Radar

Lyrics? Hardly intelligible. But when the beats are this good, words barely matter anyway. [Spring 2008, p.88]

Dot Music

All told, it's pleasant to actually have a buzz album that lives up to expectations; long after people stop talking about them, this album will still be a surprising and compelling listen.

PopMatters

If Crystal Castles has a weakness, it’s that many of the songs contained within have appeared previously on earlier singles, EPs and splits. Still, it’s hard to complain when the album draws so much strength from these songs, even if they are the exact same versions that early adopters have been wearing out on their turntables for years.

Q Magazine

At its best, it makes for exhilarating listening, as on 'Crimewave' and the bleep-funk soundclash that drives 'Air War' and the unexpectedly tender 'Courtship dating.' [June 2008, p.138]

Observer Music Monthly

From the full-on Nintendo Wii panic-attack of 'Alice Practice' to the breezy, off-kilter electro-pop of 'Crimewave' and 'Air War', this sumptuously squelchy 16-track debut already feels like a Greatest Hits.

Uncut

What could be a kitschy nostalgia trip, however, becomes something more thanks to the songs themselves. [Apr 2008, p.94]

Slant Magazine

Crystal Castles' most rockist moments seem to wish to appear arty by being as annoying as possible. It's a tricky maneuver, and the fact that the group doesn't quite pull it off screws up the coherence of this otherwise strong record, but that doesn’t make them any less promising.

Alternative Press

Crystal Castles is gloriously danceable and hopelessly chic. But really, it's... hearing only...judging is... you know? [Apr 2008, p.162]

cokemachineglow

They finally hit a hipster-heavy scene with what should have been a maverick heat-seeker of a debut and end up too tiring to interest most of the hipsters who long ago became bored of swapping their “Alice Practice” 7” on Soulseek.

Sputnikmusic

Crystal Castles is definitely a fun listen just don’t expect something highly experimental or interesting.

The average user rating for this album is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 15 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Dr O. gave it a0:
Crystal castles have already lost all cred by lying that they knew nothing of the scene and chip tune artists that it's now been proven that they sampled heavily then they disrespect their fans by lying to the press about it.

Marc R. gave it a1:
Too bad the band accumulated a reputation of being innovative and building an atari-chip based keyboard while all they did is to ripp off existing songs from other people without giving them proper credit.

Thomas M. gave it a10:
Who cares if previously released stuff is compiled here and there is little new material? It's all friggin' awesome.

Leete F. gave it an8:
I think this album is very nice. Very nice.

Luka T. gave it a3:
Only a few new tracks, not surprised. They could have done much much better than this. The problem with Crystal Castle is that they tend to do both brilliant exciting songs and boring unbearable aborted experimentations. I was hoping they would concentrate on new fresh material for the album, including only a few "hits" from what they had made available on myspace previously. Instead, most of the tracks are stuff we've heard before, and sadly the few best tracks are the new ones. I say sadly because it shows that if they really had worked on the album, we would have had a mass killer album full of new unheard tracks, which is not the case here.

[Anonymous] gave it a10:
Wow! This will definitely be one of the best albums of the year. The consistency of awesomeness throughout the album is incredible. It's practically impossible not to want to get up and dance when you hear "Black Panther." And tracks like "Love and Caring," with it's angry shouting and loud noise perfectly complement more relaxed but equally incredible tracks like "Magic Spells"

Crystal Castles by Crystal Castles

Crystal Castles
by Crystal Castles