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Los Angeles
Studio album by X
Released	April 26, 1980
Recorded	January 1980
Studio	Golden Sound Studios, Hollywood, CA
Genre	Punk rock
Length	28:05
Label	Slash
Producer	Ray Manzarek
X chronology
Los Angeles (1980) Wild Gift (1981)
Singles from Los Angeles
"Los Angeles" Released: 1980

Los Angeles is the debut studio album by American rock band X, released on April 26, 1980, by Slash Records. It was produced by ex-Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek and includes a cover of the 1967 Doors song "Soul Kitchen".

Los Angeles placed at No. 16 in The Village Voice's 1980 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.

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

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Christgau's Record Guide	A−
Entertainment Weekly	A
Pitchfork	8.5/10
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Spin Alternative Record Guide	9/10
Uncut

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 of The Village Voice 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, Los Angeles placed at No. 16 on the Christgau-organized Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll. Los Angeles Times critic Robert Hilburn named it one of the ten best albums released between 1977 and 1987. Subsequently, Los Angeles was ranked No. 24 on Rolling Stone's 1989 list of the 100 best albums of the 1980s, and Pitchfork ranked it 91st on its 2002 list of the decade's top 100 albums. The former also ranked it #286 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003, dropping it to #287 in the 2012 update of the list, and to #320 in the 2020 update. In 2012, Slant Magazine placed Los Angeles at No. 98 on its list of the 100 best albums of the 1980s. The title track was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".

In pop culture

• The album's title track was featured in the series finale of The Shield.
• "Los Angeles" 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 80s. In Tony Hawk's Underground 2 as well as Rock Band, the uses of the words "nigger" and "shit" were censored, while the Guitar Hero version used 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.
• "Los Angeles" is mentioned at the very end of Bret Easton Ellis's debut novel, Less than Zero.
• "Nausea" was performed in the 1981 rockumentary The Decline of Western Civilization, and later in 2008 in the Germs biopic film What We Do Is Secret.
• In 1994 The X-Files episode "3", "The Unheard Music" was heard in the background during the Club Tepes scene.
• In 2003, the HBO television series Six Feet Under features main character Nate dancing to “Los Angeles” with his baby daughter in the episode titled "Everyone Leaves". He describes the song as “music that doesn’t suck”.

Track listing

All tracks are written by John Doe and Exene Cervenka except where noted

Personnel

X

• John Doe – bass, lead vocals
• Exene – vocals
• Billy Zoom – guitar
• D. J. Bonebrake – drums

Additional personnel

• Ray Manzarek – organ on "Nausea", "The Unheard Music" and "The World's a Mess; It's in My Kiss"; synthesizer on "Sex and Dying in High Society"; production

References

1. "X's Debut Album 'Los Angeles' Turns 40 - Anniversary Retrospective". Albumism. April 25, 2020. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
2. ^ "The 1980 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. February 9, 1981. Retrieved September 20, 2011.
3. ^ Levy, Joe (2006) . "Los Angeles – X". Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (3rd ed.). London: Turnaround. ISBN 1-932958-61-4. OCLC 70672814. Archived from the original on December 20, 2010. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
4. ^ Prato, Greg. "Los Angeles – X". AllMusic. Retrieved September 11, 2005.
5. ^ Christgau, Robert (1990). "X: Los Angeles". Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-679-73015-X. Retrieved April 4, 2006.
6. Weingarten, Marc (September 28, 2001). "X: Los Angeles / Wild Gift / Under the Big Black Sun". Entertainment Weekly. p. 75.
7. Bengal, Rebecca (February 25, 2019). "X: Los Angeles". Pitchfork. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
8. Sisario, Ben (2004). "X". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 889–90. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
9. Sheffield, Rob (1995). "X". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. pp. 438–39. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
10. "X: Los Angeles". Uncut. No. 55. December 2001. p. 118.
11. Tucker, Ken (August 7, 1980). "X: Los Angeles". Rolling Stone. No. 323. Archived from the original on December 24, 2007. Retrieved May 12, 2006.
12. Hilburn, Robert (May 17, 1987). "10 Years Later: A Critic's List of the Best Albums of the Decade". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
13. Azerrad, Michael; DeCurtis, Anthony (November 16, 1989). "The 100 Best Albums of the Eighties". Rolling Stone. No. 565. p. 76. Retrieved February 21, 2007.
14. "The Top 100 Albums of the 1980s". Pitchfork. November 20, 2002. p. 1. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
15. "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. May 31, 2012. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
16. "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. September 22, 2020.
17. "The 100 Best Albums of the 1980s". Slant Magazine. March 5, 2012. Retrieved September 4, 2012.
18. "Experience The Music: One Hit Wonders and The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll". rockhall.com. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc. Archived from the original on April 8, 2011. Retrieved April 27, 2009.
19. Various Artists, The Shield, Lakeshore Records, retrieved October 9, 2023
20. "The Fantastic Soundtrack of 'Tony Hawk's Underground 2'". Lifewire. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
21. "Grand Theft Auto V Reveals Expanded Radio Station Tracklists for Game Relaunch". Pitchfork. November 17, 2014. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
22. Ellis, Bret Easton (June 9, 2010). Less Than Zero. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-75646-6.
23. "The Decline of Western Civilization". www.tcm.com. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
24. "What We Do is Secret". www.tcm.com. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
25. "Every song from S3E10 - Six Feet Under, "Everyone Leaves"". WhatSong. Retrieved October 9, 2023.

Further reading

• Draper, Jason (2008). A Brief History of Album Covers. London: Flame Tree Publishing. pp. 226–227. ISBN 9781847862112. OCLC 227198538.

External links

• 40th anniversary retrospective by Discogs.com

• X (American band) albums
• 1980 debut albums
• Slash Records albums
• Albums produced by Ray Manzarek