Greetings from Imrie House

Background

The album's title refers to the band's Boston house on Imrie Street where they lived while writing the album and attending Berklee School of Music.

The album's musical style of "retro new wave and power pop" was inspired by Cheap Trick, the Beach Boys, and the Knack.

Commercial performance

The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 15 on September 3, 2005, marking the highest-ranking debut for any pop or rock band that year, selling 51,541 copies. It was also the best debut in Lava Records' history. Billboard's Melinda Newman opined that the grassroots following the band had developed online responsible for the high debut. In its second week, the album dropped to number 28.

In an era of declining album sales, the band moved 268,000 copies of the album by January 2006, considered disappointing in comparison to the sales of lead single "Just the Girl". "Part of me likes the idea of being a singles band," said Joe Guese to Rolling Stone at the time.

Reception

Greetings from Imrie House received mixed reviews. Rolling Stone's Barry Walters deemed the album and group "Simultaneously retro, current, mainstream-minded and knowing." Gary Susman of Entertainment Weekly called it "insanely catchy blend," combining "guitar crunch, pop hooks, and Queen-worthy vocal harmonies." John D. Luerssen of AllMusic predicted the band would be considered "disposable," while also attracting "instant acclaim" from other quarters.

Spin's Jessica Grose found the album "unbelievably derivative and banal," commenting, "The thought of the Click Five catering to legions of swooning tweens may be inevitable considering their tour partners, but you don't have to be part of the Click Five problem. You can be part of the solution." A reviewer for IGN was explicitly negative, describing the record at times "an aborted fetus" and "nauseatingly acrimonious," while also suggesting readers should instead download music from Joel Cohen, A Tribe Called Quest, and Can.

Personnel