When your name is lifted from a SHE-RA reference, there's a tinge of punk-rock irony to your roots, but electro-duo Crystal Castles are from another pair of geeks with a laptop. Their debut is an assured slab of catchy glitches, Atari-infused madness, and fuzzy punk thrash. The balance of spastic aggression and sublime futurismo substantiates the totality of CRYSTAL CASTLES as a complete artistic statement, but it is straightforwardly lush excursions like "Crimewave" and pop-vocal numbers like "Good Times" that most boldly captivate, carrying on the classic Kraftwerk tradition of twitchy transcendence and fusing it with more modernly danceable songcraft.

Spin (p.94) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Glass' voice reveals an underlying warmth, making Crystal Castles' cyborglike persona unexpectedly real."

Uncut (p.94) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[With] emotionally damaged disco songs that sound like Cher's 'Believe' infected with a virus, or full-on dancefloor tantrums...that see Alice Glass' distorted vox battling with crunchy sound effects."

Alternative Press (p.162) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "CRYSTAL CASTLES is gloriously danceable and hopelessly chic."

Q (Magazine) (p.138) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "At its best, it makes for exhilarating listening, as on 'Crimewave' and the bleep-funk soundclash that drives 'Air War' and the unexpectedly tender 'Courtship Dating'."

Clash (magazine) (p.114) - "[A] genuinely innovative debut, which is likely to become a benchmark for the next electronic/punk experimenters."