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MojoSep 6, 2016Amnesty's dark, metallic electro-pop creates an overwhelming Strum Und Drang. [Oct 2016, p.99]
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Aug 24, 2016Ultimately, it’s confusion that remains at the end of Amnesty (I). Crystal Castles always were an uncomfortable band, but the bumpy conception of this album and the awkward introduction of new ideas dampen even its most teeth-chattering moments.
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Aug 22, 2016If the sense of overfamiliarity is a bit disappointing for a band once lauded as experimentalists, producer Ethan Kath has also retained his knack for writing terrific hooks and warped melodies. Ornament and Kept are nuggets of brilliantly disjointed electropop.
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Aug 19, 2016The record doesn’t achieve a great deal in saying anything new. It’s far from a disaster, though. ... The main issue with Amnesty (I) is that Crystal Castles needed to say something different.
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Aug 18, 2016The result is an album that, while impressively intense, lacks the human urgency of their earlier work.
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Aug 18, 2016No alarms and no real surprises, yet the execution carries Crystal Castles 2.0 through.
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Aug 18, 2016The album meets all goth-adjacent indie-dance needs squarely. It doesn't, however, ever transcend those needs.
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Aug 22, 2016The first product from Crystal Castles 2.0 is a mixed bag of nostalgia, proficiency, and carefully staged continuity.
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Sep 13, 2016Sometimes, Kath will try to replicate the past with a house-oriented number like Frail, where Francis tries her best to replicate Glass’s contagious shrieking but without the same stage presence. In spite of this, Amnesty (I) isn’t afraid of glossing over its faults in hopes of trying out new things.
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Sep 7, 2016The central dichotomous tension is blandly predictable (loud-quiet-loud-quiet), the songwriting occasionally sharp, but its political themes--like its vocalist--are lost in the fury.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 61 out of 86
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Mixed: 18 out of 86
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Negative: 7 out of 86
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Aug 19, 2016
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Sep 24, 2016
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Sep 1, 2016