Thursday, April 02, 2009

830. Underworld - Second Toughest In The Infants (1996)


















Track Listing



1. Juanita
2. Kiteless
3. To Dream Of Love
4. Banstyle/Sappys Curry
5. Confusion The Waitress
6. Rowla
7. Pearl's Girl
8. Air Towel
9. Blueski
10. Stagger


Review

More electronic music in the list, fortunately, however, this is more interesting than most of the bland crap we have been having. Underworld clearly have more influences of the greats of electronica like Kraftwerk, matching it with trip-hop sensibilities so present in the mid-90s.

So there are some vocals here and even if none of the songs are particular hits they are still good enough to make listening to this album a comparatively enjoyable experience.

The music here is more confrontational and aggressive, substituting the soporific chillout style with a harder edge that is more than welcome in an electronic music album. Still not amazing, but much better than most of the competition in 1996.

Track Highlights

1. Confusion the Waitress
2. Juanita
3. Pearl's Girl
4. Stagger

Final Grade


8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album opens with one of Underworld's longest tracks to date; the multi-suite "Juanita : Kiteless : To Dream of Love", which features all three parts intersecting each other at various points during the piece. The loungy, drum and bass track "Banstyle" follows, alongside its downtempo, half-speed counterpart "Sappy's Curry". The rest of the record showcases advancements in the Underworld sound: both "Rowla" and "Pearl's Girl" feature club-ready abrasive beats and basslines, while "Blueski" and "Stagger" incorporate live acoustic guitar and light, melancholic arrangements, respectively. "Pearl's Girl" is one of the few Underworld songs to use breakbeats.

Due to the success of the single "Born Slippy .NUXX", Second Toughest was re-issued with a bonus disc containing the single-only tracks "Born Slippy .NUXX" and "Rez"; Japanese editions also featured "Cherry Pie", an early version of "Rowla"; and the "(Carp Dreams... Koi)" mix of "Pearl's Girl".

Juanita/Kiteless:


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