[Lx_Nen]

Well, I guess I might as well chip in with my thoughts...

It's a truly great album, and a definite return to form after AHDO, which I always felt was Rick and Karl trying a bit too hard to prove they could still do dance music without D.E. and in the process forgetting they were Underworld along the way. This album in contrast exudes confidence in their natural eclectic Underworld style.

Crocodile/Beautiful Burnout is the commerical part, and I'm tempted to say they should have been listed as 1 track, to kick the album off with a 13 minute epic in the style of Juanita/Kiteless/Dream of Love, maybe this wasn't done because the 2 halves are both going to be singles?

Holding the Moth and Ring Road seem to be dividing fans, which I'm all in favour of - who wants their albums to be predictable? I'm in the hate Moth, love Ring Road camp, Moth is too formula-housey-jazzy for me. I didn't like the fistst half of Cups either, and Moth just sounds like Cups Pt 1 revisited to me. Ring Road, on the other hand takes Underworld into new territory (I guess Bruce Lee is the neaest point of reference?), inviting comparisons with The Streets... on the first listen I was half expecting /dreading a 'dry your eyes mate' style chorus. There's some real venom from Karl on the subject of tagging... leave the urban graphic design to proper professionals like Tomato, you uncultured football-shirt wearing masses! :-) Maybe I love this song because I live in Romford and know that Ann Summers shop, those supermarket steps, those dageham hoodies and of course the Ringroad itself. God knows what Americans will make of this talk of arsenal shirts though.

I've always had this thing with Underworld that if they mention a specific location, I generally knew it already - I used to commute down the tubehole in Farringdon Street, I bought milk and teabags for the office in Europa on Wardour Street, many's the night I stood waiting on Stratford station waiting for the midnight train to Romford thinking that everything was going west and nothings going east, as on the fast lines over the other side of the station dark trains thundered past with the lights in their windows turned off. I even used to drive home from my parents house along Crow Lane (score 10 bonus uw-obsessive points if you know the link!), and now I've started working from home in the outskirts of Romford, I'm still getting my 'stalked by Underworld' fix from Ring Road.

Anyway... Glam Bucket. I really, really wish I hadn't seen how amazing this was as a live rock-out before hearing the much tamer album version. The other way round would have been a wonderful surprise, but as it it the album version is overshadowed by the live take. One of the perils of being a band that constantly reworks tracks is that sometimes things get better after you've committed the supposedly definitive version to vinyl, and the annoyingly shrill synth stabs neat the end are a definite 'oh, drat we thought of the pete townsend guitar whirl ending too late' moment.

To Heal is of course delicious, but I do hanker for the welsh vocal snippets that give it it's name. Not so keen on Boy Boy Boy, but that's probably because I knew someone who self-harmed, and that really puts me off, so I won't blame UW for that... now we are into the part of the album where the manifesto 'we can do anyhing we like, bacause we are underworld' gets hammered home. CBvsTCV is odder than blueski, and hats off to underworld for putting it on a mainstream album rather than
tucked away on a rivererun.

I absolutely love Faxed Invitation, it's classic Underworld that wouldn't feel out of place on any of their albums, and it has amazing protential to become an epic stormer live. It's crying out to be al least twice as long and twice as heavy on the percussion, perhaps it's being held back a bit on the album to become a single later?

Good Morning Cockerel is bittersweet and everything that it should be, then Best Mamgu Ever hits that 'last track on an underworld album' vibe perfectly.

overall... it's wonderful, diverse yet cohesive, the lack of 'obvious' crowd-pleaser singles counts in it's favour - I didn't think I'd say this, but I'm coming round to the fact that the addition of the likes of "Peggy Sussed" and/or "You do Scribble" would have been a mistake. It's very Underworld, which is exactly what I wanted it to be...