Los Angeles (X album)


Los Angeles is the debut studio album by American rock band X, released on April 26, 1980 by Slash Records. Produced by ex-Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek, it includes a cover of the 1967 Doors song "Soul Kitchen". It placed at No. 16 for the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. In 2003, the album was ranked No. 286 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It has been called one of the ten best albums of the 80s.
In 1988, Slash issued Los Angeles and Wild Gift jointly on a single CD. It was reissued by Rhino Records in 2001 with five bonus tracks.

Critical reception

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 wrote that their outlook and songs "make a smart argument for a desperately stupid scene."
AllMusic's retrospective review concluded 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 No. 16 on the Christgau organized Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. Subsequently, it was ranked No. 24 on Rolling Stone's 1989 list "The 100 Best Albums of the Eighties", and Pitchfork ranked it 91st on their top 100 albums of the 1980s. The former also ranked it No. 286 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003, and 287 in a 2012 revised list. The title track was 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 No. 98 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".

In pop culture

Bonus tracks (2001 CD reissue)

  2. "I'm Coming Over " – 1:24
  3. "Adult Books " – 3:21
  4. "Delta 88 – 1:28
  5. "Cyrano de Berger's Back – 3:01
  6. "Los Angeles – 2:14

    Personnel

X
Additional personnel