Critical The album has a score of 69 out of 100 from
Metacritic based on 38 reviews indicating "generally favorable reviews". Other reviews were positive.
Playlouder gave it four-and-a-half stars out of five and said, "Turns out what the world was waiting for really was those that saved guitars finally making a record that truly reaped the rewards of their efforts." Punknews.org gave it a score of three-and-a-half stars out of five and said, "What exactly it is the Strokes ultimately hope to achieve with their music remains to be seen. However, so long as they continue to put out quality discs with high replay value, they will remain that rare breed of band where hype did not spoil the goods."
MusicOMH gave it a score of three-and-a-half stars out of five and stated, "For the first six songs, the whole thing is as exhilarating as Is This It, it's in a different way, undoubtedly, but there's the same giddy rush of excitement."
Stylus Magazine gave it a B− and called it "the first pretty good album of the year."
Tiny Mix Tapes also gave the album a score of three-and-a-half stars out of five and said, "There is indeed more good than bad. Unfortunately, there is also more bad than there should be." Some of the reviews are mixed or negative.
Drowned in Sound gave it a score of six out of ten and stated, "Cast away the politics and the last twenty minutes and you'll still be left with two or three top tunes to add to your daily playlists, but it was never going to be ground-breaking or innovative."
Uncut gave it three stars out of five and said, "The ambition's hampered by Julian Casablancas' sad-sack singing."
Slant Magazine gave it two-and-a-half stars out of five and said it "introduces some subtle new colors to the band's musical palette... but the pervasive sense of inert boredom, which has been noted as a strength in the past, is difficult to shake."
PopMatters gave it a score of five stars out of ten and said, "While it might be easy to point to the industry guy behind the boards, the album speaks for itself, and the Strokes managed to write a flop all by themselves." "
Heart in a Cage" was the album's second single, followed by "
You Only Live Once".
NME rated
First Impressions of Earth at #8 in its Albums of the Year 2006 list.
Commercial First Impressions of Earth entered the
UK Albums Chart at number one, the Strokes' first album at the top spot. The album peaked at #4 in the US, with an entry sales week of 88,000 units, somewhat below the performance of its predecessors. In Canada, the album debuted at #3, selling just under 10,000 copies. As of October 2006, the album had sold 271,000 units in the US, and has received
gold certification for sold over 500.000 units by
RIAA in June 2021. Although the album was the band's first release to reach #1 on any chart worldwide, it is also the first not to reach
UK platinum status, and spent much less time on the charts than the previous albums. However, it has still achieved gold sales in Australia. and UK. ==Track listing==