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Underworld never sound particularly tired on Oblivion with Bells. Granted, the music is less innovative than before, and also more quiet, which makes Hyde's vocals more critical than they've ever been.
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Too bad, then, the album drifts off into the ambient sighs and murmurs of their recent movie-soundtrack work, minus the diverting visuals.
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It clearly meshes with their previous incarnations and eventually emerges as a listenable album in its own right.
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MojoThe appealingly titled Oblivion With Bells continues Karl Hyde and Rick Smith's desire to capture the Freon-and-neon static of modern life. [Nov 2007, p.92]
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After an auspicious introduction Oblivion With Bells has disappointingly descended into an irreconcilable docile abyss.
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Q MagazineExpansive opener, 'Crocidile' finds them locked into the pulsing techno groove that made 'Born Slippy' so maddeningly addictive. [Nov 2007, p.148]
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SpinIts follow-up is where they relax--literally. [Nov 2007, p.126]
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Unfortunately, though, while they sound brighter and more alive than they have in a while, their default mode still leans a little too heavily on Hyde's increasingly silly beat poetry and the kind of unashamedly booming drums that haven't sounded exciting since, well, 1997.
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Oblivion With Bells is a competent record and, it must be said, far stronger than the most recent releases by '90s contemporaries The Prodigy or The Chemical Brothers.
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UncutThis is a finely polished album, but low on guts, grit or urgency. [Nov 2007, p.129]
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For all its tasteful craft, aesthetic unity and knowing winks to its makers’ history, it’s simply not very interesting
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Expansive, unfurling bangers like 'Beautiful Burnout' help keep Underworld above the line that separates has-beens from are-stills.
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If you're a hardcore fan of Underworld, you'll find some things to love here (as I did), but others will probably want to reach for something more consistent.
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Some thrills and spills, then--like West Ham--and the first fifteen minutes are as good as you could hope for from a band coming back to life after an extended period on the sidelines.
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The worst aspect of Oblivion With Bells is not that it is in any respects a bad album, merely a mediocre one, perfectly serviceable and peppered with as many small-scale pleasures as baffling misfires, but all the same instantly forgettable and damnably inessential.
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You get what sounds like Karl Hyde doing freestyle slam poetry overtop of dull beats on 'Ring Road.' 'Crocodile' starts off promising but then gives up and becomes a backdrop for a one-syllable nightclub with white sofas.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 20 out of 27
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Mixed: 4 out of 27
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Negative: 3 out of 27
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MorganH.Jan 6, 2008
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JamesJ.Dec 3, 2007
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RubNov 29, 2007I think this album is quite good. pleasantly surprised.