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Some songs are intensely gripping, like the instrumental rave-up "Chemistry," which drives along like Mogwai never happened. Others are plain weird.
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80Aggressive yet soulful, "War" doesn't just straddle the line between rock and electronica-it destroys it.
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The result is a stormy set of dark, synth-streaked psych-rock jams that carries a whiff of tomorrow while looking back to the stomping proto-metal of Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer.
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75If there's a central problem with War Stories, it's that at times it strays too close to rock orthodoxy and loses the offbeat stylistic flourishes that made Unkle such an exciting proposition to begin with.
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70So, once again UNKLE have produced another good rather than great album that sounds ahead of the curve.
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70War Stories is another win for Lavelle.
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Amid the many features and incredible dynamism that mark every UNKLE full-length, there are no songs to grab onto and little of real essence.
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60While the results aren't entirely successful, "Twilight," especially, by Massive Attack's 3D, proves that Lavelle can reimagine 'soul' like no one else.
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60There are enough excellent moments on War Stories to judge it a success, but there's another sense of missed opportunity hanging over the album.
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60Unfortunately, on the rest of War Stories, Lavelle plays it safe by sticking close to poppy electro-dance tunes.
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58The overall atmosphere is grey, too blah and insular to be colorful.
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It's solid enough, but given the imagination they once possessed, it sounds like UNKLE are trying too hard.
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A whole album featuring Astbury or Clark would be spectacular, but the remainder of War Stories sounds like paint-by-numbers remixes. [Summer 2007, p.85]
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50War Stories feels more like a random compilation than a fresh exploration. [Aug 2007, p. 110]
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50The album as a whole is something of a grab-bag. One track can be great, the next stunningly mediocre.
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45War Stories is the most unadventurous, most typically rock UNKLE release to date.
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45It falls flat, offering little hope for the listener; after a few disappointing rounds of thinking that the next track simply HAS to be solid, the album exits as if it were never really there. Without a doubt, War Stories is the weakest and most disappointing UNKLE release to date.
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Every track on this record grows into some such perfectly orchestrated climax, surging as a function of the production alone and with nary a hook or clever turn of phrase or structural complication in sight.
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40A turgid modern, progressive rock with superficial hip-hop sheen. [August 2007, p.119]
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 21 out of 24
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Mixed: 1 out of 24
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Negative: 2 out of 24
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PatrickH.9So good it hurts. Great workout music. And you should hear them perform it live.
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JimmyH.8