Puneet Varma (Editor)

Los Angeles (X album)

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Released
  
April 26, 1980

Los Angeles (1980)
  
Wild Gift (1981)

Release date
  
26 April 1980

Label
  
Slash Records

Length
  
28:05

Artist
  
X

Producer
  
Ray Manzarek

Los Angeles (X album) httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumb6

Recorded
  
January 1980, Golden Sound Studios, Hollywood, CA

Genres
  
Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Psychobilly

Similar
  
X albums, Punk rock albums

Los Angeles is the debut album of the American punk rock band X, released on April 26, 1980. Produced by ex-Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek, it includes a cover of the 1967 Doors song "Soul Kitchen" featuring Manzarek on keyboards. It placed at number 16 for the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. In 2003, the album was ranked number 286 on the Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Contents

In 1988, Slash re-released Los Angeles and Wild Gift jointly on a single CD. It was re-released by Rhino Records in 2001 with five bonus tracks.

X los angeles full album


Critical response

Los Angeles was reviewed very positively from its first release. Ken Tucker wrote in Rolling Stone that it "is a powerful, upsetting work that concludes with a confrontation of the band's own rampaging bitterness and confusion." Robert Christgau writes that their outlook and songs "make a smart argument for a desperately stupid scene." Finally, AllMusic's review concludes that the album "is considered by many to be one of punk's all-time finest recordings, and with good reason."

For the year of its release, it was placed at number 16 on the Christgau organized Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. Subsequently, in 1989, it was ranked number 24 on Rolling Stone's list of 100 best albums of the 80s and Pitchfork ranked it 91st on their top 100 albums of the 1980s. The former also ranked it number 286 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003. The title track is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In 2012, Slant Magazine placed the album at number 98 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".

In pop culture

  • The album's title track played in the series finale of The Shield and has made numerous video game appearances including the soundtrack to Tony Hawk's Underground 2, as downloadable content in Rock Band and as a cover version in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's. However, the use of the words "nigger" and "shit" were censored while the Guitar Hero version uses the second verse as the first and second verse. The uncensored version of the song appeared in the next gen versions of Grand Theft Auto V.
  • "Nausea" is also notable for its performance in the opening of the 1981 rockumentary The Decline of Western Civilization, and later in 2008 in the Germs biopic film What We Do Is Secret.
  • In The X-Files episode "3" The Unheard Music is heard in the background during the Club Tepes scene.

    • Track listing

    All tracks written by John Doe and Exene Cervenka except as indicated.

    Bonus tracks (2001 CD reissue)

    1. "I'm Coming Over" (Demo version) – 1:24
    2. "Adult Books" (Dangerhouse Rough Mix version) – 3:21
    3. "Delta 88" (Demo version) – 1:28
    4. "Cyrano de Berger's Back" (Rehearsal) – 3:01
    5. "Los Angeles" (Dangerhouse version) – 2:14

    Personnel

  • John Doe – bass, lead vocals
  • Exene – vocals
  • Billy Zoom – guitar
  • D.J. Bonebrake – drums
    • Additional personnel
  • Ray Manzarek – organ, production

    • Songs

    1Your Phone's Off the Hook - But You're Not2:26
    2Johny Hit and Run Paulene2:51
    3Soul Kitchen2:25

    References

    Los Angeles (X album) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA