Oblivion with Bells (Includes bonus DVD)
November 8, 2008
Customer Review: Nice One !
Oblivion with Bells, the second offering from the so called ‘Underworld Mk III’; though I prefer to think of it as No 5 from Underworld. Prior to purchasing this CD, I had read the reviews outlayed below, and being such a big fan of Underworld that I am, the content of such reviews would have to have been pretty awful for me not to have bought this. So I bought it, played it the first time and frankly, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. So I played it through a second time, then a third, and by this stage I really started to enjoy it. The album kicks off with thier strongest track, ‘Crocodile’, followed with a nice linked segway into the track ‘Beautiful Burnout’. Both tracks prove to be a strong and most upbeat introduction to the album, however the rest of it dosen’t follow such a pace. This proves to be a good thing as the remainder of the album provides an excellent mix of mid-paced, almost ‘funky’ style tracks like ‘Boy, Boy, Boy’ (reminiscent of the Beaucoup Fish tracks ‘Bruce Lee’ and ‘Something Like A Mamma’) and some really nice ambient-like instrumentals: ‘To Heal’ and ‘Glam Bucket’. One thing I’ll mention, and I’m sure this fact has been stated so many times before it has become a cliche, there’s a distinct difference between the sound of this album (and the previous one) and the albums from the days of Emerson’s presence. Now, I’m not interested in debating if the group are better with or without Emerson; what I will say is that Emerson’s infulence certainly brought a certain ‘edgeyness’, a distinctive raw, upbeat sharpness to the music, whereas the new ‘Mk III’ group is little more low-key in thier style. This is evident with thier lattest album. Oblivion with Bells is a little softer around the egdes, yet still maintains thier unique, off-centre sound style that makes Underworld such a distinctive force within the electronic genre. For my money, this album was worth every cent I paid for it and then some - far better than thier previous effort ‘100 Day Off’. My only criticism, don’t bother with the double CD-DVD package, the DVD wasn’t worth the extra bucks - the album alone is all you’ll want.
Customer Review: too many lyrics
I have never written an irate Amazon review before. But all the positive reviews of this album had me expecting another beautiful album like “A Hundred Days Off”, (which I consider to be Underworld’s crowning achievement).
I do really like the music on this disk, (hence the 2 stars) but as soon as I hear vocals, I can’t seem to hit the skip button fast enough. There are one or two tracks where the vocals are less intrusive “Faxed Invasion” is almost listenable… maybe… and some do sound “sampled”, which is ok, but by far the majority of songs are ruined by bad vocals.
The vocals on “Ring Road” are particularly laughable. Almost like a bad imitation of the streets. Definitely listen to that one before you purchase. If you can stand to, that is. Buy from here…
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