Editing The Age of Plastic (section)

==Retrospective reviews==
{{Album ratings
| state = plain
| title = Retrospective professional ratings
<!-- Reviewers -->
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}<ref name="Allmusic">{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-age-of-plastic-r2940/review |title=The Age of Plastic |author=Montesano, Jeri |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=17 February 2012 |archive-date=21 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101021031933/http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-age-of-plastic-r2940/review |url-status=live }}</ref>
| rev2      = ''[[MusicHound Rock]]''
| rev2Score = {{rating|2|5}}<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Graff|editor1-first=Gary|editor2-last=Durchholz|editor2-first=Daniel|title=MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide|publisher=Visible Ink Press|location=Farmington Hills, MI|year=1999|section=The Buggles|isbn=1-57859-061-2|page=172}}</ref>
| rev3 = ''Krinein Magazine''
| rev3Score = 8/10<ref name = "Krinein Magazine">{{cite web|first=Vincent|last=L.|date=7 December 2003|url=http://musique.krinein.com/buggles-the-age-of-plastic-1201/critique-1204.html|title=Buggles – The Age of Plastic|language=fr|work=Krinein Magazine|access-date=20 April 2013|archive-date=15 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515003110/http://musique.krinein.com/buggles-the-age-of-plastic-1201/critique-1204.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
| rev4 = <small>''[[Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]''</small>
| rev4Score = {{rating|2|5}}<ref name = "VirginEncyclopedia">{{cite book | title=The Virgin encyclopedia of eighties music | publisher=[[Virgin Books]] | author=Larkin, Colin | author-link=Colin Larkin (writer) | year=1997 | pages=85 | isbn=0753501597}}</ref>
}}

Among retrospective reviews, Jeri Montesano from [[AllMusic]] described it as "a fun record that doesn't need to be taken too seriously" and that "it would be difficult to find a record from this era that sounds half as good. Pop rarely reaches these heights."<ref name="Allmusic"/> While reviewing the Buggles' second album, Montesano stated that both albums "still sound fresh" compared to 1990s pop music.<ref name = "AllmusicAventures">Montesano, Jeri. [http://www.allmusic.com/album/adventures-in-modern-recording-mw0000373034 Adventures in Modern Recording] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190405204929/https://www.allmusic.com/album/adventures-in-modern-recording-mw0000373034 |date=5 April 2019 }}. [[AllMusic]]. Retrieved 22 May 2013.</ref> [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]] editorial reviewer Grant Alden also compared the album to 1990s pop, and labelled the group as "Part of the early-1980s great explosion of pop music [...] to have any real impact."<ref name = "Amazon editoral">{{cite web|first=Grant|last=Alden|url=https://www.amazon.com/Age-Plastic-Buggles/dp/B000001FVL|title=Age of Plastic|website=Amazon |access-date=20 February 2014|archive-date=28 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140228024347/http://www.amazon.com/Age-Plastic-Buggles/dp/B000001FVL|url-status=live}}</ref>

''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]'' described the LP as "one of the best examples of the decade's characteristically disposable pop",<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/archives/buggles/33826#sthash.KesiRlwC.dpuf|title=BUGGLES|encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]|date=7 January 2007|access-date=26 April 2014|archive-date=24 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924100807/http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/archives/buggles/33826#sthash.KesiRlwC.dpuf|url-status=live}}</ref> while ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]'' named it one of the "8 Essentials of Post-Kraftwerk Pop."<ref>{{cite journal |first= Chuck |last= Eddy |title= We Are Also the Robots: 8 Essentials of Post-Kraftwerk Pop |url= https://www.spin.com/2012/06/we-are-also-robots-8-essentials-post-kraftwerk-pop/ |publisher= [[SpinMedia]] |journal= [[Spin (magazine)|Spin]] |date= 22 June 2012 |access-date= 1 November 2014 |archive-date= 1 October 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211001234807/https://www.spin.com/2012/06/we-are-also-robots-8-essentials-post-kraftwerk-pop/ |url-status= live }}</ref> [[Napster]]'s Nicholas Baker liked the album's composition and concluded that "this LP is not so much a guilty pleasure as an essential point in electropop history."<ref name="Napster">{{cite web|author=Baker, Nicholas|url=http://www.napster.co.uk/artist/the-buggles/album/the-age-of-plastic-spectrum/track/i-love-you-miss-robot|title=The Age of Plastic: The Buggles|publisher=[[Napster]]|access-date=28 April 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140224134709/http://www.napster.co.uk/artist/the-buggles/album/the-age-of-plastic-spectrum/track/i-love-you-miss-robot|archive-date=24 February 2014}}</ref> ''[[Metro Pulse]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Anthony Nownes found the tunes "punchy, memorable" and "accessible", concluding his review with "If all rock records sounded like this—shiny and slick and highly processed—the world would be terrible. But a few Trevor Horns—people who use studio technology the way a curious and playful child uses a room full of fictile toys—are nice to have around."<ref>{{cite web|last=Nownes |first=Anthony |date=5 February 2014 |url=http://www.metropulse.com/news/2014/feb/05/buggles-age-plastic-1980/?print=1 |title=The Buggles: 'The Age of Plastic' (1980) |work=[[Metro Pulse]] |publisher=[[E.W. Scripps Company]] |access-date=26 April 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427105843/http://www.metropulse.com/news/2014/feb/05/buggles-age-plastic-1980/?print=1 |archive-date=27 April 2014 }}</ref>

Less favourably, Joseph Stannard opined that ''The Age of Plastic'' "sounds like unfinished business, a series of good ideas in need of elaboration."<ref>{{cite web|last=Stannard|first=Joseph|date=6 April 2010|url=http://thequietus.com/articles/04035-the-buggles-adventures-in-modern-recording-album-reissue-review|title=The Buggles: Adventures in Modern Recording|work=[[The Quietus]]|access-date=5 October 2014|archive-date=20 April 2013|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20130420012935/http://thequietus.com/articles/04035%2Dthe%2Dbuggles%2Dadventures%2Din%2Dmodern%2Drecording%2Dalbum%2Dreissue%2Dreview|url-status=live}}</ref> In a review of the album's 1999 reissue, Richard Wallace of the ''[[Daily Mirror]]'' wrote that the record "shows how [The Buggles] pioneered the synth-led nonsense which fused much of the decade's pop, but had little creative imagination. That bombastic electro-sound became [Trevor] Horn's trademark as a producer. Skip it."<ref name = "Daily Mirror">{{cite web|author=Wallace, Richard|date=23 July 1999|url=http://business.highbeam.com/5102/article-1G1-60446449/music-cd-releases-out-week|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005145039/http://business.highbeam.com/5102/article-1G1-60446449/music-cd-releases-out-week|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 October 2013|title=Music: CD releases out this week|work=[[Daily Mirror]]|access-date=13 July 2013}}</ref> [[Alexis Petridis]] of ''[[The Guardian]]'' called it "awful beyond measure", pointing to the liner notes conceding that "we did not have an album's worth of material" and called reissuing it "wasteful, it's stupid."<ref>{{cite web|last=Petridis|first=Alexis|date=21 October 2004|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/oct/22/popandrock|title=Lost in music|work=The Guardian|access-date=26 April 2014|archive-date=27 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427114022/http://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/oct/22/popandrock|url-status=live}}</ref>