In the ’90s, everyone loved [a]Underworld[/a] and feared the millennium bug. Hence, it makes odd sense that the band has been misfiring consistently since 1999’s ‘Beaucoup Fish’. With ‘Barking’, they manage to spark into life just twice. ‘Bird 1’ and ‘Move In Water’ are, in the vein of classic [a]Underworld[/a], simultaneously danceable and menacingly strange. Elsewhere, though, this collaboration-heavy eighth album tends to fail when it experiments: ‘Louisiana’ is a tediously mournful love song, and ‘Diamond Jigsaw’ a baffling [a]Doves[/a]-style stadium-indie anthem. Elsewhere, there are time-warping forays into bland house, formulaic drum’n’bass and (shudder) chill-out music. Remember that? No? Good.
Niall O’Keeffe
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