Barking -- Some general thoughts

[Caprice]

This Album Fucking Rocks.

[revolver9]

Originally Posted by lament

As for Barking.. overall, I love it. It was hard at first to get used to the straightforward pop of ALAF, or the fact that Scribble wasn't quite the 2005 live version I've been used to. But honestly - how can you hear "can you feel it?" and "heaven, heaven" in ALAF and not smile? it's so fucking catchy you just want to smash puppies.

I can't stand the chorus of ALAF. "can you feel it?" and repeating "heaven" killed an otherwise nice house track. It's about the dumbest sounding thing I've heard from them lyric wise. The bridge lyrics are terrible too. But the verses I feel are nice imagery.

But the worst is Diamond Jigsaw. And I'm not even a PVD hater. It's so generic and forgettable. Blah.

Besides that, I think there are some misdirections on Moon in Water. And Hamburg Hotel was really dulled up. Glad for the Essex version.

Love Bird 1, Scribble, Grace, Louisiana.

It's disheartening because I think that without the producers there would have been a better overall sense of satisfaction. I'm not even one asking for another Dubno or STITI but when I listen to OWB I don't imagine the songs any other way, and I don't care to.

[//\/\/]

there's just no spark of underworld originality - over-diluted by the collaborators or bereft of spark.

the emperor isn't wearing any clothes.

[TheBang]

naked as an angel?

[psychophysio]

I find the album a bit "blah" thus far. Nothing really jumps out at me as a favourite song, wheras for me OWB had about 5 songs I really liked on it. I am not a fan of the new Scribble either - it seems a bit weak compared to You Do Scribble.

Barking is slightly growing but not a lot and certainly no immediate "wow" moments like Dirty Epic, Juanita, Moaner, Beautiful Burnout or even A Hundred Days Off

[baddy2shoos]

Scribble is the album highlight for me because of High Contrast. He nails it everytime.

I think there's too much going on on the album in general...Karl's vocals just get drowned out by the predictable peaktime house/generic beats.

There's no space to let tracks evolve like on the previous albums and is it me or does Juanita's vocals (I'm guessing it's still her...) sound very laboured and pretentious or is that the point??

I think they were going in the right direction with OWB...they showed they could manage without Darren Emerson. They certainly didn't pick the most interesting, experimental producers/djs that are around (apart from Appleblim maybe). What about people like Matthew Dear or Richie Hawtin...much more relevant and fresh, surely?

I'm all for upfront singalong UW tracks...but they really do sound very generic and brash in places.

It's a grower hopefully.

[bryantm3]

you think beautiful burnout is a wow moment and between stars isn't????

to me it's by far their best in 10 years. i actively want to listen to it. bird 1 is chilling when the synth comes in, and the synth plops, as someone else mentioned do sound like kraftwerk and that actually made me enjoy them. grace is very proggy and dark and i love it. to me the only track i really don't care for is moon in water. i feel like a couple of others *could've* been better like louisiana and ALAF, but overall it's very good.


the one thing i miss from ALAF is that bass riff. boopy-do, boopy-do, bah bah doo doo...

[taoyoyo]

I'm with Caprice... to me this is a fantastic album.

Yup, I can hear touches of the collaborators in there but it's undoubtably *** Underworld **** at their most glorious... the leap from 'TMO' to ' Crocodile' to 'ALAF' is not a big one surely?

'Scibble' + 'ALAF' + 'Diamond Jigsaw' = big fucking grins all round. 'Louisiana' tears of joy.

Only one slight let down... 'Between Stars' is a great track but it doesn't sound finished to me.

Nice to hear the Alternative CD... all interesting versions and I'm glad they're there but to me 'Barking' stands out fine on it's own.

The videos on the DVD are great... love the Levi guy plot in 'Diamond Jigsaw'.

[baddy2shoos]

And now I love it. This is what Underworld do to me!!! Damn you, you creative talented awe-inspiring bastards :-)

[34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j]

I really, really want to do a mash-up of "Scribble" and Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Pure Jam". When they said "YMO meets Grooverider", I think I understand. For some reason "Pure Jam" (written nearly 30 years ago!) gives me the same kind of vibes.