''Lost in Alphaville'' is the third full-length studio album by

The Rentals The Rentals are an American rock band fronted by vocalist Matt Sharp. Sharp has been the only consistent member since the group's inception. The band's best selling single is "Friends of P" (1995). The Rentals released two albums, ''Return of t ...

, released on August 25, 2014, through

Polyvinyl Records In polymer chemistry, vinyl polymers are a group of polymers derived from substituted Vinyl group, vinyl () monomers. Their Polymer backbone, backbone is an extended alkane chain . In popular usage, "vinyl" refers only to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) ...

. The album is available on CD,

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...

and as a digital download. It marks the band's first full-length album since their 1999 release '' Seven More Minutes'' and their first-ever release through Polyvinyl, with whom they signed in December 2013.

Background and recording

After The Rentals disbanded following the tour for 1999's ''Seven More Minutes'', the band reunited in 2005 and released '' The Last Little Life EP'' as well as four mini-albums as part of their multimedia project ''

Songs About Time Songs About Time is a multimedia project released by The Rentals throughout 2009. It consists of ''Songs About Time'', three mini-albums released every three months; ''Films About Weeks'', 52 black and white short films scored and arranged by The ...

'' throughout 2009. On December 5, 2013,

Matt Sharp Matthew Kelly Sharp (born September 22, 1969) is an American songwriter and musician. Until 1998, he was the bassist for the alternative rock band Weezer, which he cofounded in 1992. He appears on their first two albums, the ''Weezer (Blue Album ...

announced that The Rentals had signed with Polyvinyl Records for the release of their forthcoming studio album, which would be their first full-length in 15 years. The album, recorded in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

and

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, is mostly made up of newly rerecorded songs from ''

'' and features The Black Keys' drummer

Patrick Carney Patrick James Carney (born April 15, 1980) is an American musician and producer best known as the drummer of the Black Keys, a blues rock band from Akron, Ohio. Early life Carney's father, Jim, is a retired reporter for the '' Akron Beacon Journ ...

, Lucius' Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig on vocals, Ozma's guitarist

Ryen Slegr Ryen Slegr is a Los Angeles-based musician best known for being a member of the rock band Ozma. He is also affiliated with The Rentals, Weezer, and Rachel Haden. The Rentals In 2006, Slegr performed with The Rentals on their U.S. tour with O ...

and Lauren Chipman of

The Section Quartet The Section Quartet is a string quartet founded by Eric Gorfain that performs cover versions of rock songs. History Eric Gorfain founded the quartet after working for the 1996 tour of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. He said the quartet fulfilled h ...

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

and

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

. Sharp and the band are credited with producing the album and it was mixed by

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

-winning producer

Dave Sardy David Stuart Sardy (born 1967), more commonly known as D. Sardy, is an American composer, musician, songwriter, and multiple Grammy winning record producer. He came to prominence as the leader of 1990s noise rock band Barkmarket before turning mo ...

Critical reception

''Lost in Alphaville'' received mostly positive feedback from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 69 out of 100, which indicates "generally favorable reviews" based on 13 reviews. Tim Sendra of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

called the album "a huge-sounding modern indie rock album with a glossy sheen on the surface, but all kinds of heart beating just below." Giving the album an eight out of ten rating, Jeff Milo of '' Paste'' wrote, "It’s far from the slapped-together shambolic style of '90s power-pop; no, this sounds much more arranged, almost like tightened chamber pop if it were clouded by the murk of shoegaze."

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from

: The Rentals *

– vocals, bass guitar,

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s *Jess Wolfe – vocals *Holly Laessig – vocals *

– guitars,

lap steel guitar The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional ...

– drums, percussion *Lauren Chipman –

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

, organ, piano,

, violin Additional musicians *

Joey Santiago Joseph Alberto Santiago (born June 10, 1965) is a Filipino-American guitarist and composer. Active since 1986, Santiago is best known as the lead guitarist for the American alternative rock band Pixies. After the band's breakup in 1993, Santiag ...

– guitar *Danielle Belén – violin *Jamie Blake – breathing, vocal effect *Roger Moutenot – percussion *Dan Joeright – drum loop, percussion *The West Los Angeles Children's Choir Technical personnel *The Rentals –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

*Matt Sharp –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

, production *Roger Moutenot – engineer *Adam Bednarik – engineer *

– mixing *Patrick Doyle – engineer, preparation engineer *Andy Brohard – mixing *Cameron Barton – mixing assistant *Ryan Smith – mastering *Lauren Chipman – choir director *Bryan Bos – artwork, design *Tim Reynolds – artwork, design

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2014 albums The Rentals albums Polyvinyl Record Co. albums