[khouri]

First impressions, which I reserve the right to reverse completely in years hence:

I Exhale: The sound of a band trying very deliberately to not sound like itself, and indeed to mock itself. The brilliance of Karl Hyde has been his way of collecting, among other things, the inanities of urban living and synthesize them into something poetic and profound. Here the inane text is simply that, announced with a Fred Schneider-like confidence that feels unsupported by the rest of the piece, and punctuated by "blahblahblahblah", which in another time would have been a tasteless critic's impersonation of Hyde. Now it's literally what he's singing. Alas.

If Rah: More of the confounding same. Sounds a bit like old LCD Soundsystem maybe.

Low Burn: The first recognizably Underworld song on the album, and one that does something interesting with the atonal concept they're been playing with on the first two tracks. Karl's voice is employed beautifully as a background element, but undermines the song when he comes back with yet more "announcing" vocals. Lyrically the words seem to have a relationship with the music this time, but they're superfluous; particularly the "Rhythm" bit. These words just get in the way of what already feels like an unnaturally compressed story of a song. That this song is so much shorter than tracks 1 and 2 is utterly bizarre to me. Low Burn feels like it wants to stretch out and breathe deeply, but this edit feels more like a hyperventilation.

Sanitago Cuatro: One of my favorite pieces of Underworld's quieter, more meditative pieces. I have no idea what its relationship is to the other songs on the record, but it's nice to have it in high quality.

Motorhome: The beginning reminds me of one of the demos showcased back in the radio days. Featuring Karl's first proper singing on the album, it's a really a nice little Underworld tune that segues weirdly into something like a vintage Chemical Brothers b-side. The least memorable song on the record.

Ova Nova: Really sublime, and a good showing from Karl in particularly -- until it just fades out and dies. I honestly thought I was mistakenly listening to an iTunes preview or something. This song is plainly meant to be much longer, and it's honestly maddening; like a television series that never airs its final episode. The 6 Music performance is much more satisfying in that way, because the song is allowed to end and progress very naturally into the closer.

Nylon Strung: The tradition of strong Underworld album closers continues here (Louisiana notwithstanding). My only criticisms of this are very nit-picky (i don't like songs that open with a really big, loud isolated vocal). Well done, more of this please.

It's very difficult to listen to this album and not think of what the band has said in the media about rebelling against their own perceptions of themselves and the way they work. This band has always been disdainful of what it's termed "looking back" or "standing still", and as someone who works in commercial entertainment it's an instinct I completely understand. In that fashion, this record is critic-proof, because the stated mission seems to have been to be less perfectionist, less brooding, less Underworld. So if I or someone else thinks it sounds unfinished, unfamiliar and even unfulfilling, then the project can be said to have succeeded in its goal.

That instinct seemed to be part of the thinking around Barking as well, where they gave the raw material of their work to other artists but were surprised to discover how faithfully Underworld-ish the music was when it came back. This album feels like Barking wasn't un-Underworld ENOUGH, so they've taken it upon themselves to go further afield. If there are spiritual and tangible rewards to be had as a result of trying very hard to not be themselves, then I'm pleased for the guys. But it's definitely a roll of the dice as far as the end listener is concerned.