Underworld - Barking (Sept 13 2010)

I did. The box is amazing. Must have.

The alternate versions are mostly very good. Some of them better than the album versions. All of them worth hearing.

I was wondering if there was a thread on this one. Really love it, great sounds, lots of attention to detail, overall an awesome party album. I do like much of the work this band has done post-Emerson but I was always left wondering, "where are the great singles?" This album is pretty much all singles. "Scribble" is currently my favorite of the bunch, although I liked it better when I misread it as "Scrabble". "Between Stars" and "Diamond Jigsaw" are just an amazing 1-2 punch. I originally thought "Always Loved a Film" was kind of a mediocre single but going back and listening to it again at high volume I realize I definitely underrated that one. Just a great solid tune. To me this sounds like a really good New Order album in spots, very 2010 but also has a few nods to their roots. I agree that "Hamburg Hotel" isn't much but it does sound nice, and I like having an unstructured track to go along with everything else here. I love this album because you can listen to it all at once, or pick and choose tracks from it, and it always sounds good. Totally not what you'd expect from a group many still think are a 90's relic!! Incredible that they (along with the Chems) are putting out some of the best work of their career!!

80s relic

i listened to this last night and there are a coupla nice tracks but as with the chems it hasn't struck me as a real improvement on the previous album.

well the thing about this vs Oblivion With Bells is that Barking doesn't have a track analogous to "Ring Road"

Finally giving this a proper listen. Very good stuff.

i listened to this last night and there are a coupla nice tracks but as with the chems it hasn't struck me as a real improvement on the previous album.

It having a couple nice tracks automatically means Barking is an improvement on Oblivion.

go back and listen to "Faxed Invitation" and "Best Mamgu Ever"

still like "Crocodile" more than anything else off that album (MAYBE "Beautiful Burnout")

the last song is like karl hyde doing his best mark hollis

So ridiculously OTM

;)

You fail to mention that, unfortunately, it's not a very good Mark Hollis.

you are not a very good ilxor

Thanks Mom!!

sonned

what does that even mean

Who's the daddy?

My friend did a great remix of Bird1 for the Beatport remix contest. Give it a listen!

http://bit.ly/9bQlZV

oh that is good

The contest is judged on total plays so if you are feeling generous, please pass it along to your group of friends. I think he deserves to win for this mix.

and it's okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
you give me everything I neeeeeed

otm

hi dere u check the essential mix from this summer

essential imo

I did not but I will, because anything that gets more of these tracks in my brain is a good thing

saw them last night and it was amazing, as expected. was really impressed by how the crowd reacted to the newer songs. seems like everyone was very familiar with the majority of barking material (bird, always loved, scribble and between stars) and was loving it.

Yeah I saw them on Monday and it was excellent. The audience didn't have much reaction to "Bird 1", but all the other new stuff went over very well. People sang along with "Always Loved a Film". I'd never seen any live videos of theirs, so I couldn't believe how much energy Karl had! He was moving about the stage like a madman, definitely added a lot to the show. Disappointed there was no "Jumbo", but everything they played was golden.

ok the sound on this is shit but just check the crowd out... so good

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14053388/scribble.mov

Yeah my impression at first is that this album would kind of grow off me but so far the "big 5" tracks on here - "Bird 1" "ALAF" "Scribble" "Between Stars" and "Diamond Jigsaw" are all still ace for me. Album of the year IMO

"Grace" has been getting stuck in my head a lot recently, which is kind of surprising to me.

its kind of got that New Order vibe to it

lately I have become obsessed with "Bird 1"

it's a great song. the live version from 10/31/08 at Brixton is really good.

i love lots of lines in taht song but the one that really gets me is 'a moped started up, sounded like a chainsaw, tiny firecrackers'

haha yes, that was the line that really made me sit down and start memorizing the lyrics a la "Pearl's Girl"; I'm about 80% there on the last verse

a fly came in
along the shaft of sunlight
coming through the open door
he watched cross the room
and get halfway and then it
turned around and left
he laughed

for some reason the phrases "brain mustache" and "he smelled time again" do not want to stick in my brain

I think Bird 1 is really the big winner on the album, especially if you don't like the "new direction"

Given a year now to absorb all the "changes" between these songs and their demos, I still think they made some bad choices on this album (esp. on "Moon in Water" which was incredible in its demo/radio form) but most of it holds up for me. "Between Stars" is still a killer.

http://www.borndirty.org/forums/showthread.php?t=11072

lyrics thread.

I have a theory about the song being about an autistic/enlightened boy. the 'he smelled time' line fits with that interpretation and from there you can make the rest fit. it's a terrifically vivid song lyrically but as usual, it's nearly impossible to extract any real meaning from the lyrics.

it really does call back to the lyrical style of "Dirty Epic" re: the whole lucid dreaming thing they do so well

I really never understood how the big line in "Between Stars" is "Everybody craaaam!"

think that's weird too but the real payoff is the 'you and spin on the outside of the earth' bit or however it goes.

hey, what have UW been up to lately? i mean the album came out "only" a year ago but they've been pretty inactive since then haven't they?

They were deeply involved in the Frankenstein play, doing the soundtrack and working closely with Danny Boyle to tailor the sounds to the action. It worked great when I saw it. They played some festivals this summer. The new Pig & Dan collection has a mix of Faxed Invitation called Geeza that's actually pretty good. UW attempted to do the Barking / collaboration thing with Oblivion With Bells but it didn't work out then. Think Geeza is from then. Pig and Dan did a few mixes for Underworld on their RiverRun Project 12" series.

blah, being an American UW fan sucks, they've never come close to the Midwest in the last 12-13 years. would just love to hear some more new music!

I'm in America too. They showed the play at theaters in some big cities. It was pretty impressive. Def. the best telling of the Frankenstein story i've seen. I'm not sure i'd recommend buying the soundtrack unless you really liked the Breaking and Entering soundtrack. There are a couple tracks that are good on their own but it's not very 'underworldy'. They also released the 'soundtrack' for Karl's art thing in Japan. That is definitely worth tracking down. It's called Bungalow With Stairs and it was released under Rick Smith's name.

Their tour rig is too expensive to tour extensively in the US according to their manager. I don't remember the exact figure he quoted but with everyone involved they need a certain amount of money and outside of doing a festival, it's really hard to sell.

http://open.spotify.com/album/6TK42CmMHuLZ0WyDWIP5Jm

I have become obsessed with the "Bird 1" remix EP

just gonna repeat myself here: "Bird 1" is fucking amazing

also I don't play "Between Stars" enough