We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic

Foxygen - We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic
Critic Score
Based on 23 reviews
2013 Ratings: #249 / 1115
User Score
Based on 635 ratings
2013 Rank: #132
Liked by 48 people
January 22, 2013 / Release Date
LP / Format
Jagjaguwar / Label
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CRITIC REVIEWS

90
AllMusic

The album's coherence comes in its incredible architecture of all these ideas, and the way the band sells them with everything they've got, taking what could be incredibly obtuse music back into the realm of pop from which it was born.

85
Beats Per Minute

We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic delivers on the promise of Foxygen’s previous material in almost every way possible

84
Pitchfork

Having a great record collection and having some idea what to do with it are two different things, and on We Are The Ambassadors Foxygen have internalized enough of the music they love to start toying with it.

83
Pretty Much Amazing

With We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic, Foxygen is a breath of fresh air, reviving a vintage style of songwriting in a new and creative fashion.

82
Paste

What’s most impressive about 21st Century is that there’s nary a dud in the bunch, a difficult feat when it comes to making modern pop music that lives mostly in the past. 

80
NME

Foxygen have managed to spray every shade from their bizarre, Technicolor imaginations onto a record that bursts with lovable eccentricities, but never tries too hard.

80
DIY

The result is a bewitching concoction of psych rock thrills, melodic pop and an untrammelled desire to explore rock's freakier boundaries.

80
Under the Radar

It's a bit frantic, but always spot-on; the band nails each retro style closely, and yet manages to channel them all into one new vision that's wholly Foxygen.

80
The Fly

It’s a rewarding mixture of romance, wit and fantasy.

75
The 405

It was a fun journey, and the band, almost brazenly, handpick all the elements they like and meld them into something that feels like their own.

70
Consequence of Sound

For a band that just started writing pop songs, this sophomore LP is an impressive outing. 

70
PopMatters

Daft but smart, traditional though strange with it, shaggy n’ scruffy, simple yet poignant, laugh-out-loud funny and hip but reassuringly dorky.

70
musicOMH

They may not be the highly innovative band that people crave, but they have achieved great success channelling their influences into their very own sound. 

70
Drowned in Sound

Though the songs are a bit scatterbrained, France and Rado leapfrog traditional genres with youthful confidence, none of which sounds contrived. 

65
The Line of Best Fit

Nostalgia is very in right now, and people love remembering their sepia-toned youth/pretending they remember the ’80s, but sometimes Foxygen sound rather too much like they’re doing covers of their Dads’ collection of dusty LPs. 

50
No Ripcord

21st Century Ambassadors relies mostly on its charm; the album feels more like a game of “guess the influence” than a determined musical statement, and the irony-laden lyrics rarely unearth a gem

SnowyFighter
84

God damn that album name wtf

Damn this thing came out of nowhere and amazed me. Foxygen is a group I knew about because of On Blue Mountain, which I think is a fantastic song, and this album mostly consists of the same quality of that song. I love the psychedelic elements that are apparent through the whole thing, and I actually really like the vocals. I love how wacky and sometimes wild they get. I like the production too because it’s kind lo fi in a weird way. It fits the sound really ... read more

Rob
77

The derivativeness of the sound doesn't bother me at all, and I've found myself coming back to it quite often. However, I'm worried this one might get lost in the shuffle as 2013 moves on.

ikmmm
78

Awesome little psych-pop album. You can instantly hear that it's blatantly derivative of bands like The Velvet Underground or The Beatles (the first part of "Oh No" literally sounds like Strawberry Fields Forever), but most of the time, the songwriting actually manages to stand on its own, and the tunes are so carelessly fun and colorful.

Aside from the gorgeous and catchy pop cuts like "San Francisco" or "Shuggie", you also get some more experimental ones, like ... read more

ikmmm
78

Awesome little psych-pop album. You can instantly hear that it's blatantly derivative of bands like The Velvet Underground or The Beatles (the first part of "Oh No" literally sounds like Strawberry Fields Forever), but most of the time, the songwriting actually manages to stand on its own, and the tunes are so carelessly fun and colorful.

Aside from the gorgeous and catchy pop cuts like "San Francisco" or "Shuggie", you also get some more experimental ones, like ... read more

notarya
70

cool cool cool cool

FunkyBlood9696
83

Sure, the rough recording and production can get a little messy at times, and the band wearing their influences of classic rock n roll artists like The Beatles and The Velvet Underground as hard as they do could be seen as a cheap imitation of an already pre-established style, but I'd say the band does those artists a lot of justice in terms of bringing those sounds back with a modern flair, as well as doing them with quality tunes and performances for multiple tracks on this pretty short ... read more

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Added on: October 4, 2012