Underworld - Strawberry Hotel - October 25th 2024

It's lovely, but a bit odd given that it's a full belter of a track when done live. This feels like the kind of version you'd get at the end of an album as a reprise.

There's no 12" or anything yet so maybe the main version will follow in a couple of weeks.

uh well... I expected way better after drift 1 wich was good

s'alright - not quite up to Juanita levels but s'alright . 25 squid for a 12'' single (+p&p) can jolly well do one mind !

  On 10/18/2023 at 10:03 PM, mcbpete said:

s'alright - not quite up to Juanita levels but s'alright . 25 squid for a 12'' single (+p&p) can jolly well do one mind !

Yep.  I consider myself an avid Underworld fan, but these "limited" (1000, lol) vinyl drops can do one.

And £80 for a hoodie? Come on guys, thats not cool.

Love this one. Has to be the most prominent Karl's been in years, heaps of lyrics and up front and centre. Drift was awesome but his contributions were fairly minimal, he's giving me '90s UW vibes here. The bit where it goes into the melodic vocals from the a capella around five minutes is a real highlight. 

Fuck the prices, though. Other artists can put out an LP for less than £25, there's really no justification for these prices, especially given that the b-side is just an a capella and an instrumental. 

Yeah, well... those limited edition coffeecups aren't gonna pay for themselves.

I like the new one. Feels a little like Second Toughest (although obviously not as good): instrumentation is mostly cold and mechanical and slick, but then the chords on those layered vocals are warm and pretty in a trance athem kind of way.

By far one of my favourite Underworld tracks has always been Tin There which does a similar trick (except it's trance style strings instead of vocals) so I like it.

I kinda prefer when they go a little more on the cold side than goofy nursery rhymes (although that can be fun too).

  On 10/18/2023 at 6:20 PM, someguy said:

 

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Reminded me of "Dark Train", and at times "Kittens", and another song of theirs I can't quite remember atm..... up until when Karl goes "STRAWBERRRRRY JAM GIRL" etc anyway. I think centuries from now future generations will discover Underworld, and maybe they will get what Karl was ever even on about lyrically. But yeah dark and progressive though again, liking it!   

Hot take: Music for techno grandpas to sip wine to. Similiar to David Gilmour's awful comfortably numb output behaves to early Pink Floyd. The Prodigy kept ahead of their game way better. Well, am I making any sense?

  On 10/19/2023 at 12:58 PM, tokn said:

Hot take: Music for techno grandpas to sip wine to. Similiar to David Gilmour's awful comfortably numb output behaves to early Pink Floyd. The Prodigy kept ahead of their game way better. Well, am I making any sense?

"where's the lie? fr, ong " as the kids would say hahaha.

  On 10/19/2023 at 8:39 AM, LooseLink said:

Reminded me of "Dark Train", and at times "Kittens", and another song of theirs I can't quite remember atm..... up until when Karl goes "STRAWBERRRRRY JAM GIRL" etc anyway. I think centuries from now future generations will discover Underworld, and maybe they will get what Karl was ever even on about lyrically. But yeah dark and progressive though again, liking it!   

"STRAWBERRRRRY JAM GIRL" is the most Karl Hyde lyric ever lol

  On 10/20/2023 at 2:50 AM, xxx said:

"where's the lie? fr, ong " as the kids would say hahaha.

The bit about the Prodigy keeping ahead of their game better....;)

  On 10/20/2023 at 8:26 AM, Goiter Sanchez said:

"STRAWBERRRRRY JAM GIRL" is the most Karl Hyde lyric ever lol

Just a disclaimer, I actually did look this up beforehand, but you know a Clam, right? Why does it even make pearls? What's the point?... Wouldn't it irrate anyone's throat? Having something like that clogging your airway, big arse mint of a thing, nahhhh y'know? Well, apparently, It's, and I quote, "as a protection against irritants that sneak into their soft tissue", ... protection against what?.... is the pearl, the vessel, the space, of the baby, of the clam? The "Pearl's Girl"? The baby girl of the clam??? Woah? Karl's laughing I bet, fine I'll keep dancing then 

...... so now anyway with this new song now Karl is going on about "STRAWBERRRRY JAM GIRL", strawberry what? Has the "Pearl's Girl" evolved into a fruit, has she now grown up? She into environmentalism now? Karl, where we going with this mate?

Still a good song though.

Enjoy when the melodic elements come in around 6:00, before that not really moved at all

Ran this through the headphones walking around last night. Love it to bits. The acapella is fantastic as well. Someone good will remix the shit out of this.

  On 10/19/2023 at 4:24 AM, springymajig said:

By far one of my favourite Underworld tracks has always been Tin There

  On 10/23/2023 at 6:54 AM, chenGOD said:

Ran this through the headphones walking around last night. Love it to bits. The acapella is fantastic as well. Someone good will remix the shit out of this.

And here it is 

And I guess they still focusing on collabs and single tracks atm, we going back to "Barking" are we? But here you go, a new one "Fen Violet":

Don't think collabs are going to be a regular thing, they just clearly clicked with this guy. Album is due out in the summer apparently.

Decent track, very Beaucoup Fish.

Did they announce Drift 1 before dropping tracks once a month or whatever last time? Or more midway through the year? Can't remember, but this seems like we are experiencing the start of Drift 2 with these single drops.

But if their next album instead is more traditional, then that's interesting. All these bands saying and doing a single a month or whatever, Underworld and Gorillaz I thinking most of, guess it didn't work out for them? FSOL seem fine so far with their calendars I guess.

Anyway, so the other new tracks atm, will they release these next?:

Gene Pool

Strawberry Hotel

Techno Shinkansen

And also Dirty Club Guitar, played once on the same tour, tho that could be a remix of Dirty?

Had another listen to Fen Violet, and yeah it's alright. But yeah what I've heard so far sound like segues and pieces to add to their live setlist...... But tho, not complaining. 

The live shows are being promoted with "new album later this year" so it seems like it's going to be a traditional one. Which I suppose kind of makes sense - Drift went against their expectations, so going in expecting to do a Drift Series 2 and ending up doing a traditional album fits that in a weird roundabout way.

Dirty Club is basically a modern update of Dirty, it was released as part of the Drift Series 1 bonus material... guessing Dirty Club Guitar adds in elements of Dirty Guitar.

I think you've got all the ones that have been performed live down. I really like Denver Luna still, and both Gene Pool and Strawberry Hotel could be great in final versions, but it does all feel very safe after a lot of the experiments of Drift. Everything so far's been four-to-the-floor for a start.

Underworld seems like such a prolific band to me, so at least they tried to get most of it out once then. I do have a thing for prolific bands/musicians, but not because all their songs are good. There were some real good ones on Drift series 1 tho (Boarder Country, S T A R etc), maybe it was that we expect each individual thing to sell as much or listened to as much? 

I'm currently working on my third album, not to plug it again, but I am literally trying to figure it out, do I go ahead and put together a big double or triple album, or do I soldier on and complete the, I'd say five different projects I was working on over the last 9 years? Personally I'd rather a big package, probably rather go that way.

In terms of Underworld, my most memorable time with them was the mid-90's. I remember the Barbara tour was abit "one song after another", if they trying to go back to 1996 by making new tracks that could move into another, maybe we get some more improv as well again, I'm all up for that.

Dude......... with that mindset and setlist.... imagine Underworld at the Sphere....... that would be amazing! Bring in that Tomato art and whatever!: