[dubman]

ok well, i have a few hours before class, let's get my own track by track in, because a lot of the cuddle bunny haters have made this a necessity by now...

Crocodile - considering the graceful lack of bang on this album, this track seems funkier every time i push play. it's still the same song, but it gets things nice and warmed up. still love that growling bass, lyrics are great, and the chorus is just that much better after seeing it live.

Beautiful Burnout - boy did this track grow a pair. it went from getting a strangely eager but slightly let down feeling from the ambient versions to meshing the music and words brilliantly. one cant really survive without the other. the regular repetition of the music matches the picture karl paints of just another train ride. it's fast but you feel still to the point of near disassociation. it's so vivid yet the damning thing about it is that the lyrics make possibly the most awkward set of words put to song. it toes the line between simplicity, poetry, and pretension, but the vision stays intact, it just depends on the listener to accept it in the first place. once that happens it's all gravy from there. the vocal treatment is so great, a huge deepness that reverberates with this meltallic flourescence of a train. absolutely wonderful. and much more danceable than they let on in live gigs.

holding the moth - really interesting track. karl seems like hes rambling but he's not saying much of anything, which is an interesting take on their usual style of voice as instrument, because it's sitting on top of it all. the music is the key focus though, because it changes from having a slightly aggro vibe from the kick and sample, to something significantly jazzier/more chilled out with the simple introduction of a synth, and it only gets more so from there. it's an instant shift in attitude that makes it a great listen, even if i dont love it

to heal - part of me really resists it because it's so blatantly movie music, and the kind of movie music you'd find in oscar baiting movies like Traffic (even if it was used in sunshine, whatever), so it's epic and swelling and all a bit obvious.
but i'm a sucker, so i like reveling in it anyway. and hey, i'd like hearing this in a movie anyway.

ring road - oh really. is that what we're doing. haha okay.
i love this song because the lyrics and delivery are dazzlingly weird and free of any desire to be any good, and it's so obviously a kept improv of rambling, it's like taking a warm morning walk and feeling excessively good about it, the threat of escalating heat later in the day contributing to the frantic pace and continual observations of things that could be something or nothing, which all comes together as something vivid and feeling very fresh. it's so awkward though. i just dont want to deal with my english-major friends giving me the sideways glance of "wtf is this bs?", so i have to enjoy this bubbly track all by myself for now. also, spot the live sample used for their live gig used in the 96-99 days

glam bucket - you heard it here first, bitches: this is just a good as the live version. in the live version the extra kick is great, but would feel really forced on the album and would probably clash with everything going on, the pause before it goes steady at 2:12 is such a subtle change but feels so good. the guitars are simply louder, so it's not the mindblowing add-on that made twist so much better. and how they come in like a switch has been flipped at 2:32 is damn near sublime. the synth stabs are fucking massive, the beautifully warm bass disappears and it's just them escalating all things higher, and then the bass comes back, and it's so perfect for such a brief moment. then it comes back again. it's fucking delerious. this tune is an instant classic and probably my favorite on the album.

boy boy boy - it's opposite day! the *more* i listen to this song, the *more* i dislike it! and the fact that it's the next single makes me think this is da3d mk2. a track that sounds very loud and very big and musically uses a bag a tricks that's vaguely painful to put up with. vibes of U2, "booming" drums, a false sense of urgency, backing vocals? superflous and highly grating strings, crap guitar, "intense" bass... the parts that arent flat (like the lyrics!) do nothing to help it out of the bombastic hole this track digs itself.

cuddle bunny vs. the celtic villages - I LOVE THIS ONE. sounds real and imagined while out exploring something hidden and largely made of metal. a stillness of setting but the visual world grinds its gears and stays busy all the time. it's ridiculously inspiring and i'm doing a lot of my design projects around it.

faxed invitation - brilliant, although mostly because karl is on his A-game here. a wealth of information and perception given in a warm and deep delivery that keeps the steady beat moving along. and then when the kick comes in he steps it up again and ads this incredible sensuousness to it. one of the few non-ambient tracks where karl quite clearly drives the track wherever it should go.

good morning cockerel - great little piano interlude. nothing especially gifted in the piano itself, but complex enough so that it doesnt sound like a silly "because i want to try it" experiment. something different for underworld, but also written very well. karl keeps the vibe together with his warmth.

best mamgu ever - i like it, though i think it's the weakest closer since M.E., it's something to do with the beat and the bass. maybe it's a little too 80's or alternately, a little too au courant with the exhaustively average downtempo stuff of today. it's a nice little journey to be sure, but vibes like that keep it from being the long journey they seem to be kinda going for. it's good that it's long though, because it makes it more of a pleasant extension than a proper track. it can simply feel good instead of demanding something more, and there's nothing in this tracks that's anything to write home about. a pretty great kickback, but it's no luetin.

overall - after being so endlessly, exhaustingly excited for this to come out; at the expense of staying current with everything else as my concentration was entirely focused on anticipating and speculating on this new evolution, and working up my own personal hype storm, i am not disappointed in the least. i'm exceedingly happy with it, and infinitely more relieved that this sounds like a band much more sure of its footing, personally and musically. can't wait for the next riverrun. A-