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

The live album has certainly helped in this assessment, but it has also made me wonder lately why so many folks slag off "Jumbo," which is really a beautiful and (I think) quite emotional song (despite the standard Hyde lyrical meanderings, which I wouldn't have any other way, of course). So many reviews of "Everything Everything" have inexplicably picked on my dear "Jumbo" as the dud track, and I have to wonder if it's because it simply lessens the momentum of the album (albeit briefly) or if I have been hoodwinked into liking a song that might, upon further reflection, just be a cute little toss-off ditty that will eventually fade in comparison to the admitted genius of "Cowgirl" or "...Skyscraper..." Whatever the case, "Jumbo" is what elevated "Beaucoup Fish" from good to great for me, and served more than any other recent track (yes, even more than the overrated "Born Slippy") to reaffirm my belief that Underworld are fab, beauty, and most assuredly wonderful.

― Max Jones, Wednesday, October 18, 2000 11:00 AM

Jo Whiley session video 1998 (lo-res)

...a fair amount of their output is wank...but stuff like "Rez" and "Jumbo" are those moments when dance music just transcends itself...stunning......probably because Karl Hyde cuts out that annoying gibberish

― Michael B., Monday, December 4, 2000 12:00 PM

I thought underworld was just crap cause of the lyrics. but man, after hearing Jumbo, i beleive these guys to be masters of the art thaat is music, if not Gods. So much can be said for a single track to cause such revelation. by the way as cryptic as these lyrics are, why do all songs have references to "the city"? am i the only one that's noticed that.

― Keyur Patel, Saturday, December 23, 2000 12:00 PM

live audio 2008

also, jumbo sounds like it could have came out last week.

― cutty, Wednesday, October 19, 2005 10:43 AM

soundcheck 2009

"Halcyon" is the shit and will get the crowd going on the floor more, but "Jumbo" is definitely more moving, more emotional, and would probably get me going a little more, the way it builds and builds through some subtle additions to the musical texture throughout.

― gear, Wednesday, October 19, 2005 12:01 PM

KCRW session video 2016

"Jumbo" is one of the only Underworld tracks I've heard where the album version has completely pwned every live version I've heard. The "click" is integral to the power of the song and it is a little slice of melancholy awesomeness but I can think of five songs off the top of my head on Beaucoup Fish alone that are better-constructed, more emotionally-involving and just plain better ("Push Upstairs", "Winjer", "Kittens", "Moaner", "Cups"). Also, "Luetin" goes over the same territory in a much more satisfying manner; there isn't another Orbital song that encapsulates that sense of open-eyed wonder in the same way as "Halcyon".

I would love to hear the "Jumbo" remixes, though; I don't know them at all.

― DJP, Wednesday, October 19, 2005 10:18 PM

audience video 2013, Karl band

"jumbo". it really does sound amazing when you listen to it while playing with a tetris keyring!

― haitch, Wednesday, October 19, 2005 11:53 PM

https://i.imgur.com/1LwBF5b.jpg

ambient loop
piano cover

totally "too much time on ilx", or too much time on ilx in 2005, but i can't hear the opening of "jumbo" without thinking of stevem being annoyed of the sound of the dude banging on the boat

― roxymuzak, Friday, October 18, 2013 10:47 AM

My number one aka the best song ever made

Rising in the morning to speak to you
Beneath the feet of the city
Click, you disconnect from me
Click, when you come to take your century

Telephone breath between us
There are no borders between us
Only these wires, dust between the wires and green glass
In the distance, I am your tourist

I'm vaguely irritated that evidently a majority of underworld fans on ILX think "dirty epic" is a better emo-underworld track than "jumbo", as if karl groaning "here comes christ on crutches" wasn't one of the more off-putting moments in their discography.

Ha. It's possible it has more points than "Dirty Epic" on its own. I had it higher. It is the best....well i had two things above it but.... dammit

Also my #1. When the lush pads come in halfway through, I think that is as transcendent as music can get. Like the doors of heaven opening

i forgot about the video for Jumbo. I always think of the visuals from "Everything Everything" for this one... shots from a train of wires overhead, holding up bits of paper with words on them. Glaring sun. I'm glad this more closely resembles music videos these days.

My number 2 behind the actual best song ever made

hard to pick a favorite track with Underworld, but Jumbo is right up there

I had no idea this song was so highly rated!

glad to see appreciation for the monster tracks from Beaucoup Fish

love how Cups evolves from a low-key track to a synth freakout after 9 minutes

as if karl groaning "here comes christ on crutches" wasn't one of the more off-putting moments in their discography.

tim this opinion breaks my heart

this was my no. 3, after "beautiful burnout" and "8 ball." idk if it's weird that i think it's the most romantic song i've ever heard

https://i.ibb.co/D1bhFKk/uw-bdo-2003-02headbob.gif

heads up to the "combining votes is cheating" partisans:

https://i.ibb.co/D1bhFKk/uw-bdo-2003-02headbob.gif

if we didn't combine votes for anything, including the next track

https://i.ibb.co/D1bhFKk/uw-bdo-2003-02headbob.gif

then the next title would be your #1

https://i.ibb.co/3F9rjKJ/uw-bdo-2003-03armsout.gif

http://ghostfood.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u004-885633.png

4. Juanita: Kiteless: To Dream of Love
1706 points, 24 votes, 4 #1s
1996 album opener from Second Toughest In The Infants

audio
live audio 1996
live video 2018 (link at 0:08)

TOO LOW

awesome

Sure, I know this observation is ridiculously dated, but when Karl Hyde strikes those two shimmering chords on his guitar five minutes deep into "Juanita" [Everything, Everything] over what sounds like a celestial choir of frantic, chirping calculators, it's positively euphoric in a manner normally reserved for Spielbergian encounters with extraterrestrials. Put simply, it rocks furiously and makes me oh so happy.

― Alex in NYC, Friday, August 1, 2003 4:46 PM

partly i think the danceability of second toughest is subtle yet powerful- the repetitive figures of the "juanita/kiteless" opening block at first just make you bounce around a little bit, jiggle a leg in your seat or whatever, but by later you're humming along with the vocoder and it picks up speed. this is opposed to the danceability of, say, "push upstairs," which just starts bashing down the door and forcing you to dance with the detroit-ness of it all and builds even more on that.

― .rob, Tuesday, June 29, 2004 3:30 PM

zz top used "juanita" as their intro music the other night, i shit u not

― roxymuzak, Monday, September 21, 2009 9:09 PM

Also, I love how 'Juanita/Kiteless/To Dream of Love' is over quarter of an hour long but still feels like it's over in the blink of an eye to me. No matter how many times I've heard it, it always feels far more shorter than it actually is.

― Turrican, Wednesday, November 11, 2015 9:18 AM

Oh wow I thought those would be 1 and 2

was wondering if you were referring to Rez/Cowgirl, haven't been following closely enough to know it they showed up

Love this one. Can't stand King of Snake, personally. I know.

always thought of Shudder/King of Snake as one track

tbf there are approx 973 versions of Snake without Shudder

I do like the way Underworld merges tracks to make a bigger picture

too low

moral victory

lol i like voted for "rez" and "cowgirl" separately so i'm assuming "cowgirl" took it

i also thought i voted for "tin there" and "pearl's girl" separately but... i sure didn't :(

77 tracks is so long for a ballot i figured something would get deleted by accident

i also voted for "dirty epic" really high

poll still impossible to predict

I think my experience of Rez/Cowgirl as one track was from Everything, Everything

Copy from the 2014 vinyl single refers to them as "sister" songs. Hmmmmmmmm.

https://www.discogs.com/Underworld-Rez/release/5955412

I'm A Big Sister, And I'm A Cowgirl, And I'm A Princess And This Is My Rez

Dark & Long and Dark Train of course being cousins

Copy on the Rowla / Cherry Jam read Since their release in the late 90’s it’s always been clear that Cherry Pie and Rowla were two tunes cut from the same cloth.

as if karl groaning "here comes christ on crutches" wasn't one of the more off-putting moments in their discography.

tim this opinion breaks my heart

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 23 June 2020 01:09 (fifty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

soz, when I bought dubno it was the track I liked most first off, but (while I still like it a lot) it just strikes me as being a bit obvious and on the nose with its big emotional pull. So I ended up voting for "Dirty Guitar" instead (so lol I guess I'm part of the problem I was complaining about).

whereas "jumbo" tacks hard in the opposite direction: karl sings quieter and the effect is to imbue every word, every precisely-enunciated "click" with a sense of calibrated emotional heft.

i'd never really thought of "dirty epic" and "jumbo" as being particularly comparable, they're more one-offs in terms of feelings to me that they've never quite done anything else like either.

Also now that "Juanita" has placed (too low of course) can someone explain to me how the track actually breaks down into the two/three sections?

I've generally assumed that Juanita is the first section, Kiteless is the part beginning "There is a sound on the other side of this wall", and "To Dream of Love" is just the high-pitched recitation of colours at the end?

that's always been my understanding, since "To Dream of Love" doesn't appear on the Everything, Everything tracklisting and that's the part that's missing

whereas "jumbo" tacks hard in the opposite direction: karl sings quieter and the effect is to imbue every word, every precisely-enunciated "click" with a sense of calibrated emotional heft.

― Tim F, Monday, June 22, 2020 7:10 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is correct and why "jumbo" is superior yes

"only these wires" still gives me the chills

a lot of their great tracks have a sense of withheld but ready to burst ecstasy

today's results very o_O to me. no one's fired but i'm going to need some time to recover.

i don't think there's really a clear breakdown of which part is which. the "juanita (promo short cut)" edit is a minute of the middle breakdown section (which incidentally is mostly missing from the everything, everything version - there's only a short excerpt of it at the end that transitions into the "cups" end section) edited into three minutes of the "there is a sound on the other side of this wall" part

http://ghostfood.uk/public/ilx/underworld/u003-899161.png


3. Pearl's Girl and Tin There
1955 combined points, 37 total votes from 24 out of 25 voters, 2 #1s (and 1 #1 for Tin There as a standalone)
1996 album track Second Toughest In The Infants JBOLP4
remixed as 1996 12" JBO38
remixed again as B-side 1996 12" JBO 45
B-side remix edited for Playstation Wipeout 2097
edit re-edited for soundtrack CD CDV2815


official video by Dylan Kendle and Graham Wood
offical live video Rijksmuseum 2017
webcast video 2006
Pearl's Girl (Tin There) audio

oh wow too low