Album Review

Underworld – Always Loved A Film

• 20th Sep 2010

Buy now while summer memories last. I’m assuming that’s the logic of this first full single release from Underworld’s sixth studio album, Barking. There’s even a dash of Spanish guitar to underpin the imagery of sunrise beach parties evoked by Hyde’s vocals but to me that is as anachronistic as Italo house piano and oddly I find said piano cropping up in the Latin tinged remix by Solo.

For the main release Mark Knight and D. Ramirez lend a hand on the production duties. A DJ intro of a fat kick drum with a splash of ring modulated vocals piques the interest. Thereafter it has the feel of a song without actually being one – neither fish nor fowl. I haven’t had the privilege of hearing the album yet and maybe this track fits the grand scheme of things but it doesn’t quite have the brio I’d normally expect of an Underworld single; still, it can’t all be Born Slippy.

Maybe I’m judging by their already stellar standards as I’ve never let Rez / Cowgirl out of my record box since its release – an albatross? My copy of Always Loved a Film didn’t have the remixes but after hunting them down on Underworld’s MySpace page, I find that Michael Woods’ mix is much more like it. The pumping, phasing bass and compressed drums with vocal cut-ups sitting further back in the mix give a much more wholesome result.

As long as collaborations don’t turn into committee made records for the rest of the album and its subsequent single releases all should be well. Darren Price has been roped into production duties elsewhere I see – as a counterfoil to the albatross; he is a very good omen.