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.[4] The songs on Neon Golden fuse indie rock and electronic elements,[5][6] taking influence from styles such as glitch[7][8] and IDM.[9]The A.V. Club described the album as a "synthesis of dreamy indie-rock balladry and stark electronic underpinnings",[5] while MusicOMH critic Dylan Kilby referred to it as a work of "electronic post-rock".[10]
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".[11] The album was acclaimed upon its initial release in Europe in 2002,[22] 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.[23][24] In The Village Voice's 2003 Pazz & Jop poll, Neon Golden was voted by critics as the year's 33rd best album.[25]
Pitchfork ranked Neon Golden at number 131 on its list of the 200 best albums of the 2000s.[26]Neon Golden has been cited by critics as a landmark album of indie electronic, or "indietronica", music;[6][27] Tristan Gatward of Loud and Quiet remarked in 2019 that the sound of indie electronic music in the 2000s "was dictated" by the record.[27] In 2014, PopMatters writer Jose Solis described it as a "truly groundbreaking" album that "set in motion an electronica-meets-indie rock revolution that [would] define the sound of a decade."[28]
Track listing
All lyrics are written by Markus Acher, except where noted
^Pitchfork Staff (October 2, 2009). "The 200 Best Albums of the 2000s". Pitchfork. Retrieved April 28, 2023. Radiohead's early-decade recipe of electronic-flavored art-rock...left listeners ravenous to find other bands that could whip up those prickly moods and sonic textures. Enter the Notwist...a group that happened to be pushing many of the same buttons...Notwist's 2002 breakthrough, Neon Golden, is a great work of narrow emotional response.
