why don't you poll me I feel like flying to... the UNDERWORLD Poll Results thread -- produced by Smith & Hyde for ILM Artist Poll #102

I was the guy who put this at #1, tough decision but it felt right in the end

chillest dude 2020

Ova Nova had managed to bounce off me completely until after the ballots closed, and it's currently one of my favourite Underworld songs.

Listening a lot to BBWFASF after submitting my ballot I wish I'd put it higher on mine too

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u047-208623.png

47. Confusion The Waitress
467 points, 14 votes

1996 album track from Second Toughest In The Infants
audio
live audio 1996

Barbara is so cohesive after the first two (excellent) tracks you almost don't want to talk about it cuz you might sound like you're calling it "samey"... but they're all distinct tracks that manage to sustain a certain...ok, chill

(Holy crap, "Santiago Cuatro" is cuatro minutes long??)

i think ova nova was my highest rated barbara track? maybe if rah was higher. i refuse to look at my ballot and get acquainted with how wrong i was

I was the guy who put this at #1, tough decision but it felt right in the end

― frogbs, Monday, June 15, 2020 6:11 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

extremely respectable no. 1!

I relistened to 2nd Toughest and, surprisingly, didn't hate it. I still feel like the recorded versions of most of the songs aside from "Rowla" and "Pearl's Girl" don't have the same impact that they do in a live setting (ESPECIALLY "Confusion The Waitress", which really kills the momentum of the album) but I have a much smaller chip on my shoulder about the actual album than I used to

I still rank it behind all of their other albums though, except maybe Oblivion With Bells

― DJP, Wednesday, October 24, 2012 1:32 AM

I never really had a problem with "Confusion". You kind of need to listen to it on good headphones to catch all the little things that go on on that album. It just captures SO MUCH of what was great about the whole 90's electro scene (dubnobass did too, but kind of had its own sound)

― frogbs, Wednesday, October 24, 2012 1:38 AM

audience audio 1998

https://i.imgur.com/yzp5ZWJ.jpg

Darren Emerson remix, for more speculation on what he brought to their songwriting

she said

You kind of need to listen to it on good headphones to catch all the little things that go on on that album.

very true

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u046-745074.png

46. Mother Earth    
485 points, 11 votes inc 2 for FM
1992 12" by Tomato featuring Underworld

audio
1990 demo audio (mp3)

omg M.E. is SO GREAT AND UNDERRATED

― Stevie D, Friday, September 23, 2016 6:40 AM

good christ i love m.e., it's one of their hippiest sunrise on ibiza tracks too.

― nomar, Friday, September 23, 2016 6:52 AM

I've never understood why people are down on M.E

From day one, it's always been one of the (many) highlights on Dubno for me

― groovypanda, Friday, September 23, 2016 6:29 PM

FM Mix audio
1991 live audio

https://i.imgur.com/ETycXgp.jpg

piano cover

Although I don't understand why folks are so down on 'M.E.' ... I love that one!

― Turrican, Thursday, June 2, 2016 5:57 AM

M.E is ace. One of my favourite tracks of theirs.

― groovypanda, Thursday, June 2, 2016 6:01 AM

I shoulda voted for that one.

Still one of my favourites although this being Underworld, that wasn't quite enough to make my top 10

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u045-005880.png

45. Dune 
488 points, 10 votes
2019 digital single as part of Drift

Volkswagen Play The Road video 2013
Drift video by Simon Taylor and Carys Staton

Another find from the Drift box on relistening for this poll.

A beautiful thing

I was in front of my computer today for 8 hours. This track played on repeat for each of those 8 hours.

Love it. As many others have said, it's like a follow-up to Sola Sistem, but this time there's glimmers of hope :)

Ok, is this only me now or is Dune like the perfect successor to Are you rockstar? I mean, same vocoder setting, same lead?! Just put on Are you a rockstar and wondered why I was listening to Dune. Hm...

who else played this so much early on that the new vocal take on the box is still jarring?

*karl voice* tuuuuuuuuuune

yes!! in iTunes I put "Are You Rockstar" as track 1 on episode 3

I'm sure it's been mentioned a few times but this track brings back nearly the entire sound palette of AHDO

and beats most of it!

I scratched the lyrics down on a notepad one day as I absolutely couldn't follow them through the song otherwise.... they really drift by somehow.

I made some very tough cuts to get Dune in my top 10 and still feel I under-rated it. some of my favorite Karl lyrics, and somehow they feel especially evocative, especially that middle section.

I ranked it right about here. I'm still gonna say "too low!"

I remember telling a friend of mine (who was into Underworld a long time ago, hasn't heard anything from them since, idk, 1999 or so) about what they were doing and he was like, "that's cool but I can't imagine listening to all that". ten minutes later he sent me a link to "Dune" and wrote "I wasn't expecting this at all, this is insanely good"

And about these lyrics. They're as nutty as they are pretty. Moaning like a dartboard? Haircut like a fish? Are my ears broke?

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u044-917064.png

44. Deep Arch
495 points, 13 votes
1996 CD5 b-side

audio

18 years ago first panic attack happened to me and I didn’t know what to do and how to get rid of that sudden and desperate anxiety. Somehow that piece helped to become much calmer.

One of my absolute all time fave Underworld tracks. I often play this towards the end of a very long night/DJ set. Mesmeric.

In this ego dominated world, this is just one little piece that fights in the corner of soul.

Makes me happy to be alive knowing that theres music like this to soundtrack my life. So many fond memories to this. Lying down on my conservatories couch on a summers evening after 'winning' my first girlfriend from the near clutches of a school mate. Feeling the warmth of the evening and the warmth in my heart, this song will always take me back to those times. Even if she did turn out to be a stuck up bitch.

I must have listened to this track a few thousand times by now, and I never get tired of it. It`d be the perfect soundtrack to some eerie time-lapse montage: maybe a lightning-quick trip through unnamed cities at night, or rushing unseen over endless seas of grass as the sun sets, or... I don`t know. Enough to say it`s a magical track. Thank you Smith and Hyde for this beautiful music. Genius.

They never disappoint. So many of their productions can be listened to countless times. I'm delighted to have existed in the same period of time when they made the world just perfect.

tsk, audio

Man, I'm an idiot not voting for this one.

deep arch too low on my own ballot (had it around 30). this is my favourite subtype of underworld song, the kinda song that it just feels like i can hang out inside it forever.

Really a great bookend for the EP's opener "Tin There," too.

*looks up US compilation tracklist* wow that's bonkers having Pearls Girl (edit) and Pearls Girl (album version at tracks 6 and 7 out of 9, especially not having (Carp Dreams... Koi) at all

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u043-409790.png

43. Border Country
505 points, 13 votes
2019 free-to-mailing-list mp3 by Underworld and Ø (Phase) as part of Drift

video by Simon Taylor and Jan Urbanowski
audience video at Sydney Opera House, 27 days before release

this is one of the best yet from Drift

― ufo, Friday, June 28, 2019 9:48 AM

oh my fuckin GOD border country

― BradNelson, Friday, June 28, 2019 10:19 PM

it is really quite something

― maffew12, Friday, June 28, 2019 10:41 PM

well this is good

― DJP, Friday, June 28, 2019 10:53 PM

Cocoon 20 live promo
audience video at Wembley Arena, their last gig before lockdown

second half in particular is amazing. this has got to be the fastest track they've done since..."Tin There" maybe? crazy

one thing I can't figure out is how the songs on this EP are gonna fit together...they're all very different from each other. I wonder how much they're gonna tweak for the release.

― frogbs, Saturday, June 29, 2019 12:16 AM

Deep Arch Youtube comments are wild lol!

Border Country WAY TOO LOW

what i love about this band is that they have never lost their touch over the decades ... still true to the original sound yet able to innovate and write the books for other to come ... ! if anybody would ask me who started techno and the genre whitout esitation i'd say underworld any given day ... ! love you guys thx for your work and energy !

This is like flying over a city in the future at night! Amazing stuff! It’s not just like you’re listening to a track. Underworld creates some kind of an audio MOVIE where you are in the very centre of it. Pure masterpiece, not less.

https://media.giphy.com/media/hR5Z9nH36gaZdE3zdq/giphy.gif

this is one of the best DRIFT tracks so far, no doubt. it sits up there with Listen To Their No and Appleshine Continuum for me. the visceral and bombastic intensity is the mere reason as to why this track so great...it really does hark back to the STITI era, especially with that high BPM. an absolutely essential release.

deep arch too low

everything too low

Border Country (Ø [Phase] Dark Room Tension Dub)

Deep Arch Youtube comments are wild lol!

"fatboy slim asked me where my head was at and i said underworld"

http://ghostable.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u042-605097.png

42. Most 'Ospitable
516 points, 12 votes
1994 CD B-side thing

video video by Dirk Van Dooren & Graham Wood

the most beautiful track on earth

that'll do, earth

Love Most Ospitable so much

from pov: devastating tunes that make you curl up into the fetal position with a bottle of whiskey :

4. "Most 'Ospitable" by Underworld. Kind of an obscure B-side type and maybe not fully developed but my god is that synth noise both gorgeous and impossibly sad.

― frogbs, Monday, 22 April 2013 21:27

The UK single was the first every piece of Underworld music I ever heard. I'm a massive Underworld fan but this track remains my all-time favourite Underworld track, I wish they had made more tunes like these over the years

https://i.imgur.com/VwsqrJZ.jpg

that'll do, earth

goodbye, mother

yeah this one still hits me in the gut

these guys really have a ton of one-off tracks that hint at new directions that they never fully took. I can't think of anything that sounds quite like this.

So I went to look at the YouTube comments on Deep Arch and now I can’t unhear “peepee mouth peepee mouth”

lol! i was only reading what sic bravely brought back. Good job on the deep dive.