The Official OWB Thread

[geoff]

Totally agree, qirex.

This album (especially Ring Road) reminds me why I love UW.. You can assemble Karl's fragments in so many different ways, just listening to them is a unique experience from one person to the next.. it's very challenging but very rewarding and personal for the listener as well. Rick's hypnotic grooves set the stage for a higher (lower?) level of consciousness... and that's why I love UW.. that's why I love this album.. Cheers to the boys for creating another fantastic one. Keep on keeping on.

Well there you have it.. my own mini-review. Another gem to add to the collection, indeed.

(BTW, huge wipeout fan here as well )

[big screen satellite]

album reviews also posted here if we find any....

from Novermber 2007 FHM:

going againts the culture of downloading, this album works best as a whole. tracks such as crocodile owe much to brian eno, but the ambient noodling soon gives way to ring road - a ranting, stream-of conciousness anthem, more in tune with older tunes like diry epic.
best song: holding the moth, an instant early 90's rave flashback
*** 3 out of 5 stars

erm did they just rip off most of the press release....?? lol anyway its the first mag review i've seen

[patrick]

great albumn, the first three tracks are all fantastic, and it works amazing. the track that i still don't like is ring road. i love boy boy boy, but ring road is so awkward. "sec-ur-i-ty" sound so un musical...

anyways, i am pleasantly suprised and i think it's SO cool that they didn't use anything from river run event though each one of those have one or two songs that would be stellar/nock-out albumn tracks.

lovely

[Leon]

Had a couple of more listens and it's funny, while I first really wasn't into Ring Road and Boy, Boy, Boy... now I can't get them out of my head!

I think Underworld deserves respect for putting tracks like these on the album, instead of a track like Darc (which would go better with for example Crocodile and Beautiful Burnout). Still, Darc would've been cool, but you don't hear me complain. I love the album now!

Faxed Invitation is still sounding "meh" for me, although I noticed some of the layers and build-up that make it interesting. So maybe it might grow.

And still, the singing/melody on Crocodile at 4:24 and the ambient part with the lyrics on Beautiful Burnout are the best things ever!!!!!

[King of Snake]

Faxed Invitation is one of my favourites right now. I really wish it was a bit longer. At the end it sounds like it could build into something even better but it just ends there sadly.
The first 4 tracks of the album flow really well and they're all very good tracks. Again, I thought To Heal could be a bit longer, and maybe have retained some of the vocal sample but it's still a beautiful piece.
Ring Road is ok, I really like the chorus part but I'm not totally digging it as a whole track yet. Glam Bucket, yeah the live version is definitely better. This just misses the punch in the rhythm part which means it never really kicks off like the live version. Still a decent track though. Boy Boy Boy, I'm not feeling it. Sounds too much like a run of the mill 80's rock song to me. Maybe it will grow on me sometime. Cuddle Bunny, well this is pretty empty, doesn't do much really. Faxed Invitation, as I said this is one of my favourites. I love the subdued style and the lyrics. Good Morning Cockerel: another nice track. Not fantastic but I do like it. Best Mamgu Ever: well this is just amazing and could go on forever without boring me. Epic and layered, just the way I like it.

[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...

[Flywaver]

[quote=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.



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.



LOL thats what got me into Underworld to.I am a Train Driver and i used to work out of Liverpool Street for eight years.At night i would head West instead of East with the lights out. Often wondered if a picture of myself at work would turn up inside an Album cover trundling through the High Rise of Bethnal Green instead of the usual trainspotter taking it. . Did see karl at Saffron Walden of all places having a drink at a Cafe with a Lady friend a couple of years back.

[negative1]

Originally Posted by Lx_Nen

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

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.

isn't that almost always the case?

in fact, i heard 'crocodile' and 'beautiful burnout' both live
first, and now after hearing the album/studio versions, i
find them both lacking, even though they are probably
the best songs on the new album..

there's something about hearing a track live, when the
improvise/extend or add other elements to it...that can't
be captured in the studio most of the times..

i haven't listened to the album enough (3 times only now),
to really form an opinion, but i'm leaning to the better
than 'adho' not quite 'beacoup fish' level so far..

i liked the riverrun tracks better, but that wasn't actually
an album was it?

later
-1

[BeautifulBurnout]

I hear you about the Live vs Album thing. I agree that Crocodile is better live, but I have to say the production on BB is so lush and intricate and multi-layered in comparison to the live version that it gives me goose bumps every time.

[negative1]

Originally Posted by BeautifulBurnout

I hear you about the Live vs Album thing. I agree that Crocodile is better live, but I have to say the production on BB is so lush and intricate and multi-layered in comparison to the live version that it gives me goose bumps every time.

yeah, almost but not quite like two different songs?

for me, i haven't heard 'juanita' live yet (except on bootlegs),
but i think it would be very hard to get the same effect
live....

later
-1