New York Dolls

Such a phenomenal album. The sleaze is palpable. Super influential and great in it's own right.

5.0/5.0: Iconic

early glam punk, no complaints here

Has a vibe to it and would be willing to play some songs again. 6/10

Hugely influential band, for better or worse. I mean they influenced a lot of great punk and glam bands, but also were the precursor to hair metal. This album is rockin’ and it was a fun one to listen to.

This rocks! This album features a lot of really great, fun songs. Even the songs that weren't initial standouts were still perfectly good. Pleased that I finally put New York Dolls into my ears.

Gets pretty annoying after a while

I like New York Dolls. I love their vibrant, messy, raunchy and powerful glam rock sound, so today felt like the perfect time to dive into their debut album.

The album gets off to a brilliant start. The opening tracks are superb. Personality Crisis hits straight away with energy and attitude, and Looking for a Kiss is just as good, especially as it always takes me back to hearing it before Morrissey gigs on the video package. Then Lonely Planet Boy slows things down, showing a more vulnerable side and adding some real range. Side one is excellent.

Side two is strong as well. I’ve always liked Morrissey’s version of Subway Train, but the Dolls’ original is better. Trash is another standout, full of attitude and energy. Overall, it’s just a very good album and a really enjoyable listen.

Favourite tracks: Looking for a Kiss is brilliant and feels underrated when you think about great glam rock and proto-punk tracks. Trash is superb too
Least favourite tracks: Every song is worth a listen
Album artwork: I love the cover, messy and sleazy, just like the New York Dolls

2.8/5

Like the raunchy honk tonk era rolling stones with the gain turned way up, performed on speed and in high heels. This is the raw spirit of rock and roll delivered as a glammed up mess, it's full of swagger and snarl. Makes for a pretty clear stepping stone between Little Richard and Johnny Rotten. Big dumb debauched fun.

It lies in the very nature of punk, garage, and rock ’n’ roll that every generation produces (and requires) its own heroes. Punk-adjacent guitar music - if we think of it more as an attitude toward making music than a strict genre - is immediate. Its relevance is like a meteorite: moving fast and fiercely, only to burn out in an instant, not seldom accompanied by the early demise of its protagonists.

So it makes perfect sense to me that, for a long time, I only listened to the derivatives of the derivatives of the primal punk scream of the New York Dolls without really cherishing the “originals.” For a punk band; or their records; to become part of your DNA, you usually have to be there when it happens.

That’s why I tend to see the self-titled debut of the New York Dolls as some kind of artefact… more of a holy grail than a record to spin when I’m angry, or when I want to remind myself of my careless, angsty youth. But that’s not to say the album isn’t impeccable. Because, well, it is.

What’s remarkable is how its influence still lingers, continuously reincarnating itself in new circles again and again. If you like punk-based music, then - even if you’ve never consciously listened to the New York Dolls - you’ve heard them. Or rather: you’ve heard their ghosts in the strings of your favourite New York punk band.

It won’t take long to figure out why that’s the case. Simply put, it’s because “The New York Dolls” f@*#ing rips! It’s at its best when the band fully succumbs to rawness and lets its unfiltered emotions soar.

I perhaps don’t love it quite as much as I want to, but I still think it’s pretty great. There’s really not a bum song, but “Personality Crisis”, “Lonely Planet Boy”, “Trash”, “Subway Train”, “Pills”, and “Jet Boy” are favorites in particular.

4/5

The Good: New York, New York!
The Bad: Dolls, Dolls…
The Ugly: … bandname / album name

The NYD, what is there to say? They are glam. They are not. They are punk. They are not. They are Rock. They are not… but they are, aren’t they?

This album was released to me on February 4th, today we are April 16th… and only now am I trying to rate this album… well, this one, and about 25 others, as I’ve been on 2 roadtrips during which I did listen to the albums every day, but just didn’t find time to always respond…

Is this my thing? Not really. But it oozes 70s, which is my favorite decade musically speaking, so I like that aspect of it.
I will give the album 4*, which I might downgrade later in life to 3… only because I can...

Probably a "They've been copied so much that their original stuff seems very generic", but this sounds like every hard rock album to come out in the 80s (this was released in 73!!!). If you like KISS, Twisted Sister, Alice Cooper, etc. you'll love this album.

But I just am not feeling it.

Catchy! I liked this one as soon as the guitar started on the opening song. Also sounded familiar?

4 ⭐️

Oh, how I wanted to love the idea of androgynous, gender-bending punk rockers. It got good ratings and it's sung by the Ghost of Christmas Past from Scrooged, so I thought it sounded solid enough. I got a little too excited. It's pretty generic. The songs pretty much sound like each other, and the production is nothing impressive. Something about his voice is really bland. I can't complain too much with rock music that follows a working formula, but I will complain that it doesn't have much creativity.

Fun bluesy piano, proto-punk elements, glam rock strenght, and classic polish joke "haha chłop sie za babę przebrał" vibes. Anyway, this was quite fun but I wouldn't really come back to it. It's generally mid, lmao. But it's fun, it's just a fun musical experience that shall be forgotten at some point. Cool.

Huge cultural relevance.

Imagine giving this 1 star due to being 'beige' but also giving War on Drugs 5 stars. Confusing stuff.

I'm not sure what mood I have to be in to really enjoy this album or if I've ever been in it but I think I want to be at least once. Not everyday. God no. My life would be a train wreck.

Classic proto-punk. The foundational inspiration to more than half my usual listening.

A bit repetitive at times and also a little samey but not too bad.