# Neon Golden

Neon Golden is the fifth studio album by German indie rock band The Notwist. It was released on 14 January 2002 by City Slang.

## Composition

Neon Golden is rooted in the experimental musical style that The Notwist had moved towards on their previous two studio albums 12 (1995) and Shrink (1998), which found the band eschewing the abrasive rock of their early work and delving into electronic music. The songs on Neon Golden fuse indie rock and electronic elements, taking influence from styles such as glitch and IDM. The A.V. Club described the album as a "synthesis of dreamy indie-rock balladry and stark electronic underpinnings", while MusicOMH critic Dylan Kilby referred to it as a work of "electronic post-rock".

## Critical reception

Professional ratings :
| Aggregate scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 89/100 |
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Alternative Press | 4/5 |
| Drowned in Sound | 10/10 |
| The Guardian | |
| The Independent | |
| Muzik | 4/5 |
| Pitchfork | 9.2/10 |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Uncut | |
| The Village Voice | B− |
At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Neon Golden received an average score of 89 based on 20 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". The album was acclaimed upon its initial release in Europe in 2002, while in the United States, it was widely hyped well before its official February 2003 release date due to its circulation via import copies and file sharing. In The Village Voice's 2003 Pazz & Jop poll, Neon Golden was voted by critics as the year's 33rd best album.
Pitchfork ranked Neon Golden at number 131 on its list of the 200 best albums of the 2000s. Neon Golden has been cited by critics as a landmark album of indie electronic, or "indietronica", music; Tristan Gatward of Loud and Quiet remarked in 2019 that the sound of indie electronic music in the 2000s "was dictated" by the record. In 2014, PopMatters writer Jose Solis described it as a "truly groundbreaking" album that "set in motion an electronica-meets-indie rock revolution that [would] define the sound of a decade."

## Track listing

All lyrics are written by Markus Acher, except where noted
Sample credits
* "Solitaire" contains elements from Drowning by Numbers, composed by Michael Nyman.

## Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.
The Notwist
* Markus Acher
* Micha Acher
* Martin Gretschmann
* Martin Messerschmid
Additional musicians
* Biboul F. Darouiche – conga
* Roberto Di Gioia – keyboards, piano
* Johannes Enders – tenor saxophone
* Sebastian Hess – cello
* Robert Klinger – double bass
* Saam – cajón, kanjira, zarb
* Ulrich Wangenheim – bass clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
Production
* Chris Blair – mastering
* Galore – production
* O.L.A.F. Opal – mixing, recording
* Mario Thaler – mixing, recording
Design
* Philipp Arnold – cover design
* Andreas Gerth – cover design

## Charts

| Chart (2002) | Peak position |
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) | 28 |
| Belgian Alternative Albums (Ultratop Flanders) | 25 |
| European Top 100 Albums (Music & Media) | 46 |
| French Albums (SNEP) | 66 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) | 10 |
| UK Independent Albums (OCC) | 47 |