Neon Golden

Neon Golden is the fifth studio album by German indie rock band The Notwist. It was released on 14 January 2002 by City Slang.[1]

Neon Golden
Studio album by
The Notwist
Released14 January 2002 (2002-01-14)
StudioUphon (Weilheim in Oberbayern)
Genre
Length41:28
LabelCity Slang
ProducerGalore
The Notwist chronology
Shrink
(1998)		 Neon Golden
(2002)		 The Devil, You + Me
(2008)
Singles from Neon Golden
  1. "Trashing Days"
    Released: 27 August 2001[1]
  2. "Pilot"
    Released: 19 November 2001[1]
  3. "Pick Up the Phone"
    Released: 18 March 2002[2]

Composition

Neon Golden is rooted in the experimental musical style that The Notwist had moved towards on their previous two studio albums 12 (1995) and Shrink (1998), which found the band eschewing the abrasive rock of their early work and delving into electronic music.[3] The songs on Neon Golden fuse indie rock and electronic elements,[4][5] taking influence from styles such as glitch[6][7] and IDM.[8] The A.V. Club described the album as a "synthesis of dreamy indie-rock balladry and stark electronic underpinnings",[4] while MusicOMH critic Dylan Kilby referred to it as a work of "electronic post-rock".[9]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic89/100[10]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[11]
Alternative Press4/5[12]
The Boston Phoenix[13]
Drowned in Sound10/10[14]
The Guardian[15]
Muzik4/5[16]
Pitchfork9.2/10[17]
Rolling Stone[18]
Uncut[19]
The Village VoiceB−[20]

At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Neon Golden received an average score of 89 based on 20 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[10] The album was acclaimed upon its initial release in Europe in 2002,[21] while in the United States, it was widely hyped well before its official February 2003 release date due to its circulation via import copies and file sharing.[22][23] In The Village Voice's 2003 Pazz & Jop poll, Neon Golden was voted by critics as the year's 33rd best album.[24]

Pitchfork ranked Neon Golden at number 131 on its list of the 200 best albums of the 2000s.[25] Neon Golden has been cited by critics as a landmark album of indie electronic, or "indietronica", music;[5][26] Tristan Gatward of Loud and Quiet remarked in 2019 that the sound of indie electronic music in the 2000s "was dictated" by the record.[26] In 2014, PopMatters writer Jose Solis described it as a "truly groundbreaking" album "which set in motion an electronica-meets-indie rock revolution that [would] define the sound of a decade."[27]

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Markus Acher, except where noted.

No.TitleMusicLength
1."One Step Inside Doesn't Mean You Understand"
  • Markus Acher
  • Micha Acher
3:15
2."Pilot"
4:28
3."Pick Up the Phone"Gretschmann3:55
4."Trashing Days"Micha Acher3:24
5."This Room"
  • Markus Acher
  • Micha Acher
  • Gretschmann
  • Martin Messerschmid
4:45
6."Solitaire" (lyrics by Gretschmann)Gretschmann3:29
7."One with the Freaks"Markus Acher3:38
8."Neon Golden"
  • Markus Acher
  • Micha Acher
5:54
9."Off the Rails"
  • Markus Acher
  • Micha Acher
3:27
10."Consequence"Micha Acher5:13
Total length:41:28
2003 US edition bonus tracks
No.TitleMusicLength
11."Scoop"
  • Markus Acher
  • Gretschmann
3:26
12."Propeller 9"
  • Micha Acher
  • Gretschmann
4:25
13."Formiga"
  • Markus Acher
  • Micha Acher
  • Gretschmann
2:21
Total length:51:40

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[28]

Charts
Chart (2002) Peak
position
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[29] 28
Belgian Alternative Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[30] 25
French Albums (SNEP)[31] 66
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[32] 10
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[33] 47

References
  1. "current and upcoming releases". City Slang. Archived from the original on 12 December 2001. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  2. "current and upcoming releases". City Slang. Archived from the original on 17 April 2002. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  3. Orlov, Piotr (25 February 2003). "Trans-Europe Expression". The Village Voice. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  4. Modell, Josh; Murray, Noel; Phipps, Keith; Rabin, Nathan; Thompson, Stephen; Battaglia, Andy (11 December 2002). "Best Albums of 2002". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  5. Collini, Eleonora (10 April 2014). "The Notwist: 'The songs are very different but hopefully it makes sense to put them together as a sort of puzzle or mosaic'". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  6. Young, Rob (12 March 2003). "The Notwist: 'Neon Golden'". Salon. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  7. Thiessen, Brock (17 June 2008). "The Notwist: The Devil, You + Me". Exclaim!. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  8. Ware, Tony (22 October 2008). "The Notwist: The Devil, You + Me (Domino)". SF Weekly. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  9. Kilby, Dylan (23 February 2014). "The Notwist – Close To The Glass". MusicOMH. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  10. "Reviews for Neon Golden by The Notwist". Metacritic. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  11. Carlson, Dean. "Neon Golden – The Notwist". AllMusic. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  12. "The Notwist: Neon Golden". Alternative Press. No. 176. March 2003. p. 92.
  13. Micallef, Ken (3–10 April 2003). "The Notwist: Neon Golden (Domino)". The Boston Phoenix. Archived from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
  14. Takru, Radhika (22 November 2010). "Album Review: The Notwist – Neon Golden / On/Off The Record (Deluxe Edition)". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  15. Aizlewood, John (1 February 2002). "The Notwist: Neon Golden (City Slang)". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  16. Holmes, Andrew (February 2002). "The Notwist: Neon Golden". Muzik. No. 81. p. 61.
  17. Buckman, Luke (6 February 2002). "The Notwist: Neon Golden". Pitchfork. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  18. Gensler, Andy (20 March 2003). "Notwist: Neon Golden". Rolling Stone. No. 918. Archived from the original on 27 June 2003. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  19. "The Notwist: Neon Golden". Uncut. 2010. p. 97. [G]litchy electronics and wintry acoustic melodies, it is not a million miles from the sound that went chartwards in the hands of The Postal Service and Owl City.
  20. Christgau, Robert (10 February 2004). "Consumer Guide: Parts of the Elephunk". The Village Voice. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  21. Petridis, Alexis (5 March 2002). "The Notwist". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  22. Begrand, Adrien (15 April 2003). "The Notwist: Neon Golden". PopMatters. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  23. Eddy, Chuck (4 March 2003). "Notwist – April 4 and 5 – Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, 212-219-3006". The Village Voice. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  24. "The 2003 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. 17 February 2004. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  25. "The 200 Best Albums of the 2000s". Pitchfork. 28 September 2009. p. 4. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  26. Gatward, Tristan (27 November 2019). "COMA – Voyage Voyage". Loud and Quiet. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  27. Solis, Jose (12 March 2014). "From One Wrong Place to the Next: An Interview with The Notwist". PopMatters. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  28. Neon Golden (liner notes). The Notwist. City Slang. 2002. 20184-2.CS1 maint: others (link)
  29. "Austriancharts.at – The Notwist – Neon Golden" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  30. "Ultratop.be – The Notwist – Neon Golden" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  31. "Lescharts.com – The Notwist – Neon Golden". Hung Medien. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  32. "Offiziellecharts.de – The Notwist – Neon Golden" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  33. "Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
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