Reviews of Danger Doom
The Mouse and the Mask, Danger Doom's debut album, was widely reviewed when it dropped in 2005. Reviews were, for the most part, very positive, allowing the album to garner a collective 81 percent on Metacritic.
- The Onion's AV Club gave the album an A-, stating that "this stellar collaboration threatens to give underground synergy a good name." The reviewer, Nathan Rabin, was charmed by the inherent joy in Danger Mouse's Saturday morning cartoon beats, though he thought the album would have been even better without Meatwad's cover of "Beef Rapp" as a bonus track.
- AllMusic.com called it "the best album of the year in the hip-hop underground," and expressed delight with the range of instrumentation in Danger Mouse's beats.
- Dusted Magazine looked at the album through the lens of Danger Mouse's previous work with song samples, noting that the Adult Swim clips interwoven with Doom's vocals were following in the creative-appropriation footsteps of the Mouse's notorious Beatles/Jay-Z mashup, The Grey Album. The review also praised guest vocals from Cee-Lo and Ghostface Killah.
- Indie music blog Pitchfork Media, in a 7.8 out of 10 review, called the album Doom's "most ludicrous to date," and "the best funhouse hip-hop since De la Soul is Dead." While the reviewer, Peter Macia, appreciated the album's wackiness, he found it a little trivial and shallow as well, concluding: "Danger Doom won't change your life."
- Occult Hymn, a free EP of alternate recordings and bonus tracks released by the Adult Swim network, was reviewed by fewer publications when it came out in 2006. Those critics who did give the EP a listen had decidedly mixed opinions.
- Pitchfork Media gave it a middling 4.6 out of 10, complaining that the Adult Swim skits on this album were even more intrusive than the ones on The Mouse and the Mask, and insinuating that both MF Doom and Danger Mouse were "phoning a few (songs) in."
- Absolute Punk called Danger Mouse's new beats "trite elevator music," but offered the faint praise that even a mediocre Danger Doom album was still better than what more generic rappers and producers were putting out.
- The blog The Daily Raider summed up its low opinion of the album with one line: "Sometimes even free isn't worth it."
Even though critical consensus seems to be against Occult Hymn, The Mouse and the Mask still holds up as an impressive collaboration album, respected by underground hip hop fans, music journalists and Adult Swim-watching stoners alike.
