Underworld - Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future (Coming March 18, 2016)

yet another underworld thread that suggests everyone has really specific ideas of what constitutes a great underworld record

karl hyde gives me real Muppet vibes in the 'i exhale' video, i love it

STITI turned 20 this week.

Remember buying it on vinyl the day it came out then having a listening party at a mate's house that evening and everyone being blown away.

stiti = bf > owb > dubno > barking > ahdo

barbara may be ahead or behind owb at this point. if i'm a big sister counts it's equal to stiti and bf imo

8.1 on Pitchfork - guess their critical reputation is finally coming back?

my god the last 4 really are something completely different but so beautiful

santiago cuatro is beautiful, love the guitar

I just got the Japanese bonus track and that one is pretty great too. It's a shame they keep giving Japan these interesting tracks.

"nylon strung" is the most beautiful song

kinda feel like "open me up/i want to hold you laughing" is kind of an all time hyde lyric too, his best stuff has always seemed to use odd juxtaposition to communicate something emotionally direct

more like underwearld

Yeah, Twenty Three Blue is excellent

It's a shame they keep giving Japan these interesting tracks.

I think it's because CDs are more expensive in Japan, so they give extras to stop them buying cheap imports.

Think this is easily the best album they've done since BF

I understand the reason they do it, I just think it's too bad they choose songs that are good to give the japanese market. They should just tack on some old live version of Crocodile so I don't have FOMO.

Also, last night in Berlin they played 8 Ball and Faxed Invitation. Pretty incredible.

Also, last night in Berlin they played 8 Ball and Faxed Invitation

ok if they do this in new york i'll die

"Nylon Strung" reminds me of Orbital's "Never," and the full thing is already my favorite new electronic music album since Wonky in 2012, probably. Shows how much I keep up with this kind of stuff.

i was thinking of it as being similar to wonky the other day!

I guess I should give this a listen, then!

Wonky is great tbh

Low Burn <3

x-post:

Yeah, I'm still listening to Wonky quite a lot.

finally an album of "bruce lee"s

Man I thought this was a joke, but two songs in and this is like listening to someone build a wall.

been listening to this nonstop since Friday. can't say where it fits in the UW pantheon - agreed that it's similar to Wonky in terms of quality, but I never really thought UW dropped off a cliff the way Orbital did. but this is really good - think "Low Burn" and "Nylon Strung" are gonna be the two everyone raves about, but I think the first two tracks rule as well, and I even dig "Santiago Quatro" a lot, for a fillerish track that is. as a side note I always had this MP3 attributed to Underworld called "Gypsy Hairdo" - think it was from a mk1 demo tape I got off an FTP server - and I always assumed it was mislabeled, since it's a bouncy flamenco instrumental that sounds nothing like any incarnation of UW. but now I think it may be legit.

I've listened to this maybe 6 times today. "Motorhome" is so gorgeous and maybe my favorite, the 90s house organ on "Ova Nova" is such a great touch, and "Low Burn" is of course brilliant

damn this is moving

Rick Smith came up with the title of the album through his father, which was one of the last things he said before he died. Karl Hyde in an interview said that Rick's mother's name is Barbara and said that she was fearful of the future without him and that's when his father said to her that quote that would then become the title for the album.

this album is certainly better than the last three imo, as much as i do enjoy those ones to varying degrees

right now If Rah is my favorite (I'm also one of the people that liked Ring Road)

"if rah" rules, i love that huge synth line that emerges halfway through

i also love "ring road"

I like Ring Road, but i'm still not loving If Rah. The story in Ring Road drew me in but I can't find anything in If Rah to cling to.

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The moment where "If Rah" blossoms into a huge beam of light is probably my favorite single moment on the album.

i don't want to know what happens when you say "luna" eight times on ilx

hey sug

i need sug

this is definitely the sort of album you want to hear again right away after it finishes. lately I've been thinking that "Low Burn" may be one of their best tracks full stop, dunno if I've been this obsessed with a UW tune since "Jumbo". or "Parc", maybe.

anyone else hear a lot of the Chemical Brothers in "Motorhome"? structured very similar to the ballads they do every album, uses the "Wonders of the Deep" synth and does the psychedelic flangeout just like the Chems always do (without exploding in the end, for better or worse)

think I'm ready to declare this a top-flight UW disc, especially if you add in "Twenty Three Blue". "Ova Nova" is so damn good, I'm getting chills from it

I wish it had been an EP with If Rah and I Exhale being a stand alone single.

Twenty three blue is amazing, should have been part of the album proper

100% agreed, its definitely one to crank the hell up

Making their first ever performance on Later this week.

Extended show on tomorrow night with 3 tracks from Underworld.

oo

I've been revisiting this album over the past couple of days and "If Rah" is really, really, really satisfying.

i love "twenty three blue" but i think i'm cool with it not being on the album

at least i don't really have a sense of where it would fit

"If Rah" recently got the full single / remix treatment, including one from Herbert: https://open.spotify.com/album/4L9dkMglcgAdkup0nQVZK1

I really couldn't imagine a radio edit for "If Rah" due to the pace of the build but this works surprisingly well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbphaKMepqY

I love how it just gets into it from the start. The first 30 seconds of that tune loop around in my head a lot.

Oh shit, I'm just now listening to this album and I'm properly gobsmacked.

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