Untrue
by Burial
  • Record Label: Hyperdub
  • Release Date: Nov 6, 2007
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 472 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 368 out of 472
  2. Mixed: 47 out of 472
  3. Negative: 57 out of 472

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  1. All_ButTrU4
    Dec 6, 2021
    8
    complex, stark, tender, blurred and breathtaking. Burial has managed the impossible and improved on his faultless debut
  2. spenceryang8
    Feb 3, 2019
    10
    A defining moment for electronic music across the board, Burial's sophomore album evokes a state of continuous bliss under grey skies.
  3. kermie_the_frog
    Dec 28, 2019
    10
    In my opinion this record is a classic. Those saying this album is "too repetitive" or "boring" need to stop listening to this like a normal song. This record is immersive, it's spacial, it's an atmosphere. It's jogging home at 2:00am in the city after a party, or sitting in a diner in the evening with your hood on trying to avoid eye contact. It's moody and dark, but with subtleIn my opinion this record is a classic. Those saying this album is "too repetitive" or "boring" need to stop listening to this like a normal song. This record is immersive, it's spacial, it's an atmosphere. It's jogging home at 2:00am in the city after a party, or sitting in a diner in the evening with your hood on trying to avoid eye contact. It's moody and dark, but with subtle hopefulness. I hope those who hate this record will give it another try without expectations of getting your average song structure.… Expand
  4. XavierBlaq
    Dec 26, 2013
    10
    With fast tempos despite bone-chilling ambiance, Untrue manages to be arguably one of the greatest dubstep albums ever. However, don't expect this one to hit you immediately. When I first listened to this album, I thought it had nice beats, but those seemed to drone a bit too much and I lost interest. Luckily, I gave it a second chance and was left in tears by the emotional intensity ofWith fast tempos despite bone-chilling ambiance, Untrue manages to be arguably one of the greatest dubstep albums ever. However, don't expect this one to hit you immediately. When I first listened to this album, I thought it had nice beats, but those seemed to drone a bit too much and I lost interest. Luckily, I gave it a second chance and was left in tears by the emotional intensity of every song of this album; yet I still felt the uncontrollable urge to move to the album's incredible and subtly varied rhythms. It is not often an electronica album can be this physically and emotionally moving. In fact, I cannot think of another example.… Expand
  5. wololooo
    Mar 12, 2012
    10
    Absolutely incredible. Burial's unique blend of dubstep and garage is further refined in his second full lenght release, conjuring up the same bleak, melancholic atmospheres but with new depth and focus. Faultless.
  6. mowino
    Nov 29, 2013
    9
    Given this a listen only a couple of days ago, I must say its an experience like no other. Burial did his thing with sampling and used it like a pro. I hope to hear a follow up to this near-masterpiece.
  7. ThePotnoodleBoy
    May 15, 2015
    10
    It is hard to skip a song on this faultless LP. Brooding, evocative and strong, a step up from his self-titled debut and a pinnacle in electronic music.
  8. mcpooja
    May 17, 2021
    8
    This album sounds like walking home drunk from the pub in a rainy midnight in London. The atmosphere is so cold yet so warm and inviting at the same time. Icy rhythms with surreal soundscapes and textures laced throughout its 50-minute runtime. Choppy samples and fractured and hard-hitting beats and percussive elements. Love this.
  9. Tool46x2
    Mar 29, 2017
    10
    One of my favorite electronic albums ever recorded...
    It is dark and haunting but maintains enough heart that it ends up being an uplifting experience.
    While it may send you traveling down the dark alleys of your mind, there definitely is a light ahead... I suggest consuming this all in one sitting on a night you feel open to it. I did about 10 years ago and have been listening to it    One of my favorite electronic albums ever recorded...
    It is dark and haunting but maintains enough heart that it ends up being an uplifting experience.
    While it may send you traveling down the dark alleys of your mind, there definitely is a light ahead...

    I suggest consuming this all in one sitting on a night you feel open to it.
    I did about 10 years ago and have been listening to it ever since. No one is better than Burial at this type of music and Burial never did it better than this...    … Expand
  10. Bathmat
    Sep 13, 2011
    10
    This isn't music... it's what I call Audio Art. or Art Music, or.... well. Anyway, what makes this album great is it takes you to a lonely place where nobody's around, thank god. Maybe one other person. It's stormy, it's dark and the underground tunnels are rather tricky to navigate, but you're having the time of your life. Shame the song finishes though, and you're back to yourThis isn't music... it's what I call Audio Art. or Art Music, or.... well. Anyway, what makes this album great is it takes you to a lonely place where nobody's around, thank god. Maybe one other person. It's stormy, it's dark and the underground tunnels are rather tricky to navigate, but you're having the time of your life. Shame the song finishes though, and you're back to your not-so-lucky real life. It's that brilliant amnesia you get listening to these songs making me have to give it a ten.… Expand
  11. orangepie
    Jan 4, 2012
    10
    Repetitive?, guess what, is electronic music. Since the 60s, electronic music has always been repetitive. And that's the best part when you love the beat, the echos and the vocals. You want to listen to that, again and again and a hundred times more. Open your minds, the electronic music is the most varied genre ever, because there are so many artists, each one with it's own style, so manyRepetitive?, guess what, is electronic music. Since the 60s, electronic music has always been repetitive. And that's the best part when you love the beat, the echos and the vocals. You want to listen to that, again and again and a hundred times more. Open your minds, the electronic music is the most varied genre ever, because there are so many artists, each one with it's own style, so many tracks...… Expand
  12. xKindred
    May 8, 2014
    10
    The best ambient album of all time. Burial is a hugely unappreciated artist on the electronic scene, and this is his highest quality collection of musical pieces. I look forward to future full-length albums.
  13. HDelattre
    Sep 5, 2017
    10
    I intially discovered this album in 2010 from Mt. Eden Dubstep's remix of Archangel. At the time I preferred the remix and quickly judged the album as dull faux dubstep that couldn't stand up to the kid's dubstep, the EDM brostep dropfests that were peaking in popularity at the time. I never even listened to it all the way through. I suspect this may be true for many others and the reasonI intially discovered this album in 2010 from Mt. Eden Dubstep's remix of Archangel. At the time I preferred the remix and quickly judged the album as dull faux dubstep that couldn't stand up to the kid's dubstep, the EDM brostep dropfests that were peaking in popularity at the time. I never even listened to it all the way through. I suspect this may be true for many others and the reason the user score is lagging so far behind the critics'. Hearing this for real 7 years later I am astonished at what I missed and how cheap the remix I once preferred sounds in comparison. This album transcends the genre labels most often associated with it; like all albums it has many influences but it stands out as truly unique. In retrospect it was way ahead of its time, and it might still be. Sure it has a consistent and familiar drum and bass backbone but that's just used to hypnotize you while it goes to work. Burial weaves intricate dreamlike layers that hook themselves inside you and drag you simultaneously deep into your soul and out into the far and empty reaches of space. Ghostly voices call out to you, robotic and warped in tone but utterly human in their sorrow and longing. This album is the sound of a brilliant mind so enveloped and distraught in its musings that they bleed directly into the surrounding space to be felt literally by the external world. Burial has peeled back his skull and exposed a part of his brain so that we lucky listeners can mush our brain meat against his to gain a fleeting but profound taste of pure consciousness outside ours, the type of real connection we spend our lives chasing. Untrue is an instant classic and we are extraordinarily lucky to be living in a time when this type of music is even possibly, let alone that someone was actually talented enough to produce it. Don't miss this like I almost did.… Expand
  14. shilogoviak
    May 24, 2022
    10
    It's one of the most detail-rich albums ever made, of any genre. It feels like a melancholic odyssey through a dark, rainy city, which is a pretty good description of London through Autumn and Winter. However, Untrue is never overbearingly gloomy; there are uplifting moments of beauty and hope scattered through the record, most intensely in the second half of "Shell of Light" (#9). IIt's one of the most detail-rich albums ever made, of any genre. It feels like a melancholic odyssey through a dark, rainy city, which is a pretty good description of London through Autumn and Winter. However, Untrue is never overbearingly gloomy; there are uplifting moments of beauty and hope scattered through the record, most intensely in the second half of "Shell of Light" (#9). I recommend that everyone listens to this record and that when you do listen to it you turn the volume up high and take a walk to get the full experience.… Expand
  15. lazomgmt
    May 9, 2020
    10
    One of the best underground albums of all time. Rightful amongst the most influential electronic albums ever.
  16. MR
    Dec 6, 2007
    9
    like massive attack in the 90s, this is the voice of urban britain a decade later
  17. LuisB.
    Jan 10, 2008
    10
    Honestly have not been able to stop listening to this album. I have forced myself to stop listening to it because I believe its becoming an obsession. Usually it might take a couple listens before I get into an album, this one from my first listen I have not been able to stop. Absolutely haunting.
  18. giantroot
    Jan 19, 2008
    9
    Oh Jesus. Hype? No. It's Very Greatest Album of I've Listened.
  19. dezv.
    Jan 8, 2008
    8
    Very good album. If you're bored by all that lame guitarpop, folksy pretense and tuneless r&b/hiphop, this is homecoming.
  20. BrandonD
    Jan 8, 2008
    8
    I can understand why people wouldn't like this album, I wasn't too sure of it at first either. After a while, it definitely grew on me. Not exactly the best album of the year, but a great effort nonetheless.
  21. PaulM
    Jan 9, 2008
    10
    I guess either you get it or you don't. Absolutely brilliant, hypnotic, otherworldly, beautiful...
  22. RobH.
    Mar 4, 2008
    10
    OK Computer is an amazing album. There is actually no filler on it. I dont know what album you listened to. And Dizzee Rascal and the Streets are both good, but Burial is better. I like RadioHead more than Burial, but Burial is deffinately some of my favorite electronic music I have ever heard.
  23. PureDavis
    Jul 30, 2008
    9
    Amazing!
  24. AdamP
    Mar 4, 2009
    9
    If this album could be any better, it would be the epitome of perfection, and I don't think I could handle that as my mind would explode.
  25. Jay
    Nov 30, 2007
    8
    After a couple of listens I can understand the attraction. We've been waiting for something this fantastic, but, I felt some repetition in some of the layout of the songs and wanted a different slant towards the end, I WANTED MORE. A few more listens I may feel different and see the simplicity in his follow through.
  26. Charles
    Nov 30, 2007
    10
    Album of the year, by far. I'm thinking I'll consider it one of the tops of the decade in a few years time. I can't remember the last time I was so obsessed and excited by an album. Awesome and beautiful.
  27. Peter
    Nov 30, 2007
    10
    This album deserves the hype. One of the best electronic albums I've ever heard.
  28. JoeH.
    Dec 11, 2007
    10
    The amazing thing about this record is that while it sounds like nothing I've heard before, it always feels like home. Somehow, without any real lyrics to speak of, Burial's music seems to evoke countless narratives. At times heartbreaking; at others full of hope. Archangel is easily one of the best tracks of the year.
  29. JustinM
    Dec 1, 2007
    10
    Gorgeously nuanced dubstep. Strong contender for the best electronic record of 2007.
  30. Bss
    Dec 10, 2007
    10
    Best album of the year, hands down. Forget that the drum tracks get somewhat repetitive, music is all about creating patterns for crying out loud. This is a late-night album - listen to it when you are alone in the dark. Only then can the mood that it captures so perfectly strike you the deepest. People feel threatened by this kind of creativity; it's new (and NO, Future Sound of Best album of the year, hands down. Forget that the drum tracks get somewhat repetitive, music is all about creating patterns for crying out loud. This is a late-night album - listen to it when you are alone in the dark. Only then can the mood that it captures so perfectly strike you the deepest. People feel threatened by this kind of creativity; it's new (and NO, Future Sound of London does not sound like this!), and it sounds a bit strange at first. It grew on me quickly, as it will to anyone willing to give it a chance.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

2
#2 Best Album of 2007
6
#6 Most Discussed Album of 2007
22
#22 Most Shared Album of 2007

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
90

Universal acclaim - based on 23 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 23
  3. Negative: 0 out of 23
  1. BBC collective
    80
    Burial has concocted a noir-ish sound that’s as powerful as it is atmospheric.
    Read full review
  2. Drowned In Sound
    90
    What gives this album more depth is the focus, the rolling symmetry and cinema.
    Read full review
  3. Dusted Magazine
    80
    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.
    Read full review
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