Razzmatazz is a masterful debut, one that shows promise for a pair of musicians who proudly wear their influences on their sleeves.
It may have arrived to the party fashionably late, but Razzmatazz comes at just the right time and it was well worth the wait. iDKHOW might not be changing the game exactly, but they’re packing the kind of addictive, dopamine-like qualities that’ll make you want to keep pumping coins into the slot for another hit, time and time again.
Even if indebted to 80s new wave, the Salt Lake City duo aligns more with fun, bouncy electro-pop that's about 400 miles away from their home state. Of course, I'm talking about The Killers-circa Hot Fuss.
"Guys, have you listened to new wave? What if we made that then fused it with literally all of the worst elements of modern pop rock! It's genius!"
ITS SO DAMN FUN.
I liked this band before but it was like...*I heard a few songs and they seem fine*
And god damn this album was better than I could have imagined. It's just so damn fun, sorta reminds me of After Laughter at times. Honestly really glad he quit Panic!, this is way better than the last 3 panic albums (not to say the last 3 albums were awful or anything tho, I just think this is a lot better). I can see this becoming one of my fav albums of the year if I end up coming back to ... read more
I can't recall many other albums that drop off so drastically after the first track. The opener, "Leave Me Alone", is an excellent synthpop tune that won't fail to get you groovin' a bit. It serves every purpose that an opening track should: it's catchy, it has just enough depth to catch your ear, and it gets you interested enough to sit through whatever else the album has to offer. Unfortunately, this particular album does not offer much. The energy and songwriting seriously drop in ... read more
I remember when this was first released, I was obsessed with it for months. I still think it’s a fun synthpop album, but the rose-tinted glasses are finally gone. While I enjoy the basslines and similar musical ideas, I do think that there really isn't a lot of variety in this album and I wouldn't blame someone if they didn’t like it for that reason. While I enjoy all the songs on here, I can recognize that a lot of them sound very similar, and the ones that do deviate from the ... read more
When this album slaps, it slaps.
When it doesn't, it doesn't.
Overall it's good. It could be better. The highlights make it hard to understand how the worst parts happened.
I was reminded of Twenty One Pilots' "Regional At Best" and early Panic! throughout this project. Unfortunately, that is not a good thing for me. Everything just felt really cheezy to me. I think a lot of this feeling comes from the singer's vocal inflections being all over the place on most songs.
That being said, it isn't all bad. New Invention and Razzmatazz are genuinely good to great songs. Even songs like Sugar Pills and Kiss Goodnight have their high points. Overall, a ... read more
1 | Leave Me Alone 3:35 | 87 |
2 | Mad IQs 3:02 | 78 |
3 | Nobody Likes the Opening Band 2:15 | 77 |
4 | New Invention 3:11 | 84 |
5 | From the Gallows 2:42 | 75 |
6 | Clusterhug 3:12 | 83 |
7 | Sugar Pills 3:07 | 77 |
8 | Kiss Goodnight 3:50 | 82 |
9 | Lights Go Down 3:24 | 76 |
10 | Need You Here 3:07 | 74 |
11 | Door 1:32 | 75 |
12 | Razzmatazz 4:18 | 90 |
#26 | / | Dork |
/ | Alternative Press |