Underworld - Barking

It's been 3 years since the fabulous Oblivion With Bells and Underworld are back with Barking, an album of completely different sound to this listener. This is probably due to the fact that eight out of nine tracks on the album are collaborations with other artists. Karl Hyde and Rick Smith wrote the tracks and then sent them to various dubstep, drum/bass and house producers to add extra elements to the songs. The results are hit and miss; opening number "Bird 1" is probably the closest thing in sound to everything else the group have ever made. It's vintage Underworld in it's simple bass, beat and almost whispered vocals that gradually build until a lovely piece of Karl Hyde affected vocal electronic music emerges. Not once during this opener do you remember that there is some foreign influence but by track two it becomes very apparent. "Always Loved a Film" begins and you immediately feel like you're listening to a completely different album. It's not necessarily a bad song, it just doesn't feel like Underworld; it's over-produced and the repeated chorus "heaven..." is a bit cheesy. Song three, "Scribble", suffers similarly but still manages to retain an overall Underworld feel.

Track number four "Hamburg Hotel" is a welcome change of pace after the frantic and disappointing previous two songs. A constant synth line provides the backbone of an eerie instrumental piece that could've fit right in on Underworld's '96 album Second Toughest in the Infants. The similarities to older albums continues in "Grace" which sounds like the offspring of Dubnobasswithmyheadman's "Dark and Long". This likeness in sound to older material is problematic because nothing can ever live up to what they achieved back then. It may be a result of running out of ideas on Underworld's part or that the collaborators are too much under the influence of those older tunes. Track seven has proved to be the most difficult for me to digest so far because upon first hearing it one thing popped into mind: The Black Eyed Pea's "I Gotta Feeling". I can't quite put my finger on why it reminds me so much of that horrendous song, all I know is that I don't like it. The final two songs "Moon in Water" and "Louisiana" are equally pointless and cap off an overall very disappointing album.

In short, Barking achieves only as much as it could have when it was conceived. It's a mish-mash of collaborations that for the most part fall short of memorable and as an album lacks the one thing that has made Underworld so long-lasting: personality.