by
Underworld
- Record Label: Astralwerks
- Release Date: Mar 18, 2016
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Apr 20, 2016These tracks don’t feel futuristic, but they shine with a blinding light, capping one of the most impressive arcs of any album so far this year.
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Mar 14, 2016It’s both pretty much anything you could ask for as a long-term fan and the kind of late-period album that is actually worth spreading beyond the faithful.
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Mar 17, 2016Sometimes you have to look back to move forward, and by doing that, Underworld have made their best album in almost twenty years.
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Mar 18, 2016By the time the triumphant final expansive push to the end arrives, it’s become one of Underworld’s most powerful musical statements--and the memorable grace note to a strong return to form.
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Mar 15, 2016Underworld’s never had trouble getting listeners to their feet. This gorgeously love-drunk finale makes Barbara a record that can bring them to their knees.
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Apr 13, 2016From the thumping, industrial charge of I Exhale to the sublimely hypnotic techno of Low Burn, Underworld are in full form, giving meaning and substance to every single minute with hardly a wasted moment.
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Mar 29, 2016An album on which Underworld reestablish themselves as supreme dance music architects.
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Mar 25, 2016The forceful pace and commanding lyric-mangling that originally brought them to the public’s attention are still very much in place.
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Mar 25, 2016There are several elements from their entire career fused with new ones, as well as a newfound accessibility that also signals a creativity boost. It's great to see Underworld this vital once again, indeed facing a shining future.
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Mar 22, 2016Where Barking was all about the kinetic energy of the feet and arms, Barbara… joins the soul and the head, its rhythms enhancing rather than driving the experience.
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Mar 21, 2016The album sags a little in the middle, but what’s an epic without a few longueurs? The optimism of the title is well founded.
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Mar 18, 2016Near perfect and a step forward as well, Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future belongs on Underworld's top shelf.
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Mar 17, 2016Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future is never weighed down by its makers’ history.
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Mar 16, 2016Barbara, the duo's first album of original material together in five years, often stacks up with their best work and suggests that the ideas they pioneered in the '90s aren't just back en vogue--they've held up amid decades of fast-moving techno.
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Mar 14, 2016Hyde and Smith prove they still have the Midas touch.
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MojoFeb 26, 2016It's elemental Underworld, and their most generous work in years. [Apr 2016, p.86]
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Q MagazineFeb 26, 2016Barbara Barbara is an ideal way for them to restate their currency. Having lain dormant, the creature is alive once more, electrifyingly so.[Apr 2016, p.103]
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Mar 16, 2016Those looking to understand the evolution of electronica across the pond will find that Barbara Barbara, we face a shining future will welcome them in nearly as much as Underworld’s debut LP.
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Mar 16, 2016Weighing in at just seven songs, album number eight is a far meatier experience than it seems.
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Mar 23, 2016Underworld refuse to heed their own advice, and the subtle juxtaposition of light and dark elevate Barbara from a decent listen to an enthralling one.
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Mar 17, 2016Underworld have forsworn the well-trodden path of replication and opted instead for another path. Gone are the tub-thumpers of yore in favour of understated, yet nevertheless, euphoric electronica bursting with hope.
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UncutFeb 26, 2016Barbara Barbara... makes explicit the band's influence, as well as their core strengths. [Apr 2016, p.81]
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Apr 4, 2016Its purpose is to cement Underworld as elder statesmen of minor-arena-filling, rather than “floor-filling,” amorphously electronic music. It’s not hip, but it’s not square either.
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Mar 18, 2016That could stand as a motto for the album: this is music seeking to let in the light.
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Mar 17, 2016The album, which at just seven tracks long (and none of them 15-minute monsters on the order of “Juanita”) feels almost like a two-fisted EP.
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Feb 26, 2016Barbara... is less massive comeback than slight return.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 23 out of 29
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Mixed: 3 out of 29
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Negative: 3 out of 29
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Mar 18, 2016
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Mar 29, 2016
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Jun 23, 2022