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Untrue
by Burial

Burial reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 90 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.3 out of 10
based on 23 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 302 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

The second album for the London-based anonymous dubstep artist.

LABEL: Hyperdub
RELEASE DATE: 06 November 2007
DISCS: 1 disc
GENRE(S): Electronic, Alternative, Indie

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
musicOMH.com
Untrue is complex, stark, tender, blurred and breathtaking. Burial has managed the impossible and improved on his faultless debut.
Read Full Review
100
The Guardian
As addictive as its predecessor, Untrue confirms that Burial possesses not just the keen ear of a Lee Perry or Martin Hannett.
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100
Tiny Mix Tapes
It seems as though the quick release of Untrue restricted Burial from burying his emotions underneath layers of alternatively sparse and overwhelming production as he did on his debut, resulting in an album that instead wears them unabashedly on its sleeve.
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100
MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)
Burbling electronic ticktocks vie with a carillon of bell simulacra, and rarely have vinyl crackle or laser malfunction generated more musicality.
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90
All Music Guide
If you can appreciate the style of dubstep employed by Burial, it's easy to fall head over heels for Untrue, an album on which there are absolutely no mainstream-crossover concessions, no ego trips, and no willful stylistic variation--an album where the music, a singular style of it, takes center stage with no distractions or sideshows, where there's never the urge to skip to the next track, because they're all part and parcel of the greater whole.
Read Full Review
90
Spin
Untrue deepens and expands his emotional range. [Feb 2008, p.92]
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90
The Wire
Burial has transcended his dubstep origins, belonging to a Gothic tradition that takes in Massive Attack and even 4AD at their most grandiosely despondent. [Jan 2008, p.53]
90
Dot Music
Untrue is a devastatingly accurate depiction of urban UK--plugging the listener into the matrix of some godforsaken south London satellite, with its identikit fast food joints, repellent inhabitants and anonymous decaying sprawl.
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90
Observer Music Monthly
Untrue crackles with high-tension, excitement and yearning.
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90
Drowned In Sound
What gives this album more depth is the focus, the rolling symmetry and cinema.
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90
PopMatters
The human voice, the most striking change in Burial’s sound, renders Untrue superior to its predecessor.
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90
Urb
The anonymous producer behind the work of Burial is letting his dubstep sounds progress and on his impressive sophomore album he can be found chasing the transient hints of beauty to be found in the confines of urban desolation.
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90
Delusions of Adequacy
Even as someone who knows very little about electronic music, this album is affecting. You will never get the urge to skip a song and you will desire and covet every sound that’s emitted from this album because they make up one tremendous, collective entity in Untrue.
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85
Almost Cool
Needless to say, Untrue shatters any ideas of a sophomore slump.
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84
Pitchfork
Top-heavy with sad string passages and mournful vocal loops, Untrue is an album meant to be heard at home, in the car, on headphones-- his songs feel almost like beautiful secrets being whispered to a listener.
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80
Dusted Magazine
That emptiness tempts a listener in, and puts you in its place--you, in a sense, step into the record’s point of view. This invitation to intimacy is a powerful move that most club music is simply incapable of.
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80
Village Voice
While the percussion-free 'Endorphin' and 'Dog Shelter' paint haunting pictures of isolation and heartache, a warm and generous humanity runs just beneath the surface. It's this quality that lends the propulsive woodblock throb of the closing 'Raver' its muted euphoria.
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80
Blender
The album works as an ambient whole, its fog-bank synths, yearning vocal slivers and stoic basslines filling the room with melancholy.
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80
BBC collective
Burial has concocted a noir-ish sound that’s as powerful as it is atmospheric.
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80
Slant Magazine
Machine music this unrelentingly intimate is worth the attention it requires.
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80
Q Magazine
Untrue lives in the present, its more complex moods showcasing the emotional range that marks Burial out as more than just another bloke with a computer. [Jan 2008, p.108]
75
The Phoenix
Why anyone would want to be subjected to such gloom is a good question, except that Burial is a witch with the kind of drum programming that leaves no choice in the matter.
Read Full Review
60
Uncut
Untrue is altogether warmer than its predecessor. [Jan 2008, p.87]

What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this album is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 302 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

I Rightfully gave it a6:
When it comes down to it, it really doesn't deserve that 90. Overall. I want to be able to appreciate that CD at any moment, not just when I'm taking a long drive or walking home from a club at night. That's a pretty narrow selection. Props for sounding different, but I expect more out of that score. I mean, it's a good dubstep album. That's like finding a good Country Rock album. Some people will like it, but not nearly enough for the supposed "universal acclaim". People stumble upon something different and overate it in an attempt to be a pioneer in that style. I mean, since when should we be taking Robert Christgau seriously? He said Ok Computer was trying to be Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd.

Henri N gave it a10:
Up to this point, only a single naysayer has managed to brand this album as "pretentious". Did you people just graduate the junior high of haterdom?

Garrett M. gave it a10:
Beautiful. Atmospheric. Soundtrack for a quiet drive in the dark or just plain sleep for some. What I particularly love is the vocals and how ghostly they are. Such depth. I find it amusing that some of the reviewers pan this because they can't understand the vocals. You are stuck in a one-track mind. Burial. Brilliant.

Sergio D. gave it a10:
It's 2008 now, i just got both Burial's cds along with new Sigur Ros and Spiritualized. All i can say is "sweet baby jesus"! Haven't had that feeling since Tricky released his first cd or when Massive came out with Mezzanine. This is what never fades away!

Behnam M. gave it a10:
Some kind of postmodern view of a modern city. you can feel all cries of being so tierd of aloneness. its represents all of dark hiden emotions such as hatress, grief, moans, and lurking assault of a sneaky stress wich altogether transform to a giant feel of ruin. a masterpiece of atmospheric albums. Marvelous

Pure Davis gave it a9:
Amazing!

gave it a9:
If you like a pragmatic, more active approach to music, listen to "Untrue" while preparing to make love, lighting up the ganja, or taking a 3am trespassing stroll through the neighbor hood. Btw, Archangel is about his dog that passed away... I cannot wait for his third tirade, claimed by himself as to be the darkest bit yet.

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