New Underworld album - Barking (Sept. 13, Sept 2 Japan)

[jose m]

Originally Posted by Eikman

i first listened to the new album on my way to work the other day.

when i first head "bird 1" i thought "hey, this isn't half bad. sure, that laser-gun-whatsoever-sound is a bit boring after five minutes, but it works."

then we're on to "always loved a film". it kinda took me by surprise, but not in a bad way. that is, until about 2:20 in....then the whole "heaven heaven heaven" part kicks in and i feel like i'm in summer camp of the catholic church with a bunch of drug-fueled tranceheads dancing around me with white gloves. yes, some might call it uplifting. i call it embarrasing. i actually turned down the volume on my ipod. from this moment on it sorta went downwards for me.

"scribble"....i skipped that, since i already knew it was crap.

"hamburg hotel" is interesting, but it feels like they could have made more out of it. appears to be a bit misplaced.

the part between "grace" and "diamond jigsaw" is the worst of the album. annoying stadium rock synths, annoying lyrics, annoying everything. kill it with (dub)fire!

the last three tracks are alright. sure, "simple peal" isn't much of anything, but UW were always good at producing nice ambient textures. and by now i really enjoy "lousiana". funny enough, those last few tracks were produced by UW on their own. go figure.

in the end, if you have 60 minutes of music and only enjoy about 15 minutes of it, it is a bit...uhm...unsatisfying? hence my rating.

i don't post here anymore but i've just come back to say the berlin gig is shit and the albums no good.
you then listen again and try and back up whats you said.
why bother?

[Scott Warner]

Just thought I'd drop in to say that this is a really fun record. I'm really enjoying most of it. The only two tracks I can do without are "Diamond Jigsaw" and "Louisiana" - the rest is big, over-the-top dance anthem stuff in the spirit of great Underworld tracks of yore.

It's certainly a pop record but so are most of their recognizable tunes quite frankly; there is a reason this band has been popular and not just one of the thousands of anonymous dudes out there stamping out dj tools. It's the blend between all of their pop, dance and other influences that has produced all of this memorable stuff.

Thumbs up. Don't like the title of the album much but the songs are just fine.

Love the work done on the limited box set - it's a great object.

[bas_I_am]

Originally Posted by Scott Warner

Thumbs up. Don't like the title of the album much . . .

http://www.mycampage.com/barking

[Eikman]

Originally Posted by jose m

i don't post here anymore but i've just come back to say the berlin gig is shit and the albums no good.
you then listen again and try and back up whats you said.
why bother?

just to rattle your cage, mate.