The Looks - MSTRKRFT

Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 14
  2. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. Poaching multifarious links from dance music's evolutionary chain, MSTRKRFT grind the good-time sounds of Marshall Jefferson-era Chicago house with harder Detroit techno, and use much of the rest of the album to stretch their ideas out.
  2. 80
    The Looks shows off MSTRKRFT's deep understanding of making people move. [Jul/Aug 2006, p.125]
  3. It[']s by no means an album for all times, and can get too repetitive for its own good, but in the right place, at the right moment not much tops it.
  4. True, there's a pop sensibility at work here that betrays their band roots, but that's exactly what makes this the kind of dance album you can actually listen to from beginning to end.
  5. "The Looks" throws up more sure-fire dance starters than anything [we've] heard in a while.
  6. It's heavy-duty stuff, and all the better for it. [Mar 2007, p.115]
  7. The Looks is prevented from achieving classic status due to its derivative nature, but its finds success in the Daft Punk formula all the same.
  8. Sweaty and thick, convincingly urgent and highly sexual. [Jul 2006, p.210]
  9. Keeler succeeds in meticulously reconstructing the electronic music he clearly has a taste for, but without stirring in any of his own personality the songs do little more than run in place, joylessly hitting the marks without changing the rules in any meaningful or attention-grabbing way.
  10. MSTRKRFT have essentially made an album of great productions and remixes and then forgotten to invite any artists or records along to help them out.
  11. The Looks is like the Witness Protection Program of electronic disco, where they put the folks for whom the normal anonymity of dance DJ's is simply not enough.
  12. 40
    A highly unoriginal record. [Mar 2007, p.86]
  13. 40
    Does its best to earn a few Daft Punk comparisons. [Aug 2006, p.82]
  14. It just about succeeds in sweaty five-minute blasts, but there's no excuse for a record as flatly anonymous as this.
User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 19 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 13
  2. Negative: 4 out of 13
  1. JohnnyS
    Mar 4, 2007
    It does what it wants to do very efficiently and competently: make party beats for people to feel good to. I'd take this over Daft Punk's latest offering anytime. Full Review »
  2. DavidS
    Nov 5, 2006
    I know that people have said Daft Punk, and that was my main reason for picking up this album, but it's differences make it something that, if you can get past the actual strangeness of the album, it has a unique, gritty charm. It's unique, and a breath of fresh air from the usual electronica genre. Full Review »
  3. ChrisL
    Oct 11, 2006
    Since most of us go through school with a score of 70 representing a C, I've given a 7 for this album. It's not terribly great, but its amusing to see the many people on here calling it Daft Punk rehash. I don't really think Daft Punk holds the patent on vocoder use, sorry to say. Even if that's the case, where is D.P. to save us from the crushed hopes following Human After All? Overall, not a bad album, but it feels pretty hollow. Full Review »