Album Review: Barking by Underworld

I can take or leave electronica.  Some of it grabs me, some of it bores me, and some of it just annoys me.  Underworld became a major player in the genre back in the 90s and have consistently been putting out work ever since.

This album, like so much dance stuff these days, was put together using a series of well known producers.  This is usually problematic as the album has no consistency, seems like I've talked about this before, and you feel a bit of that here.

Like most electronica I like the album at the beginning.  Really like the opening track "Bird 1" which has a nice moody, mellow tone.  But as is always the case I wear down over time, and it doesn't help that with each new producer you're given a slightly different version of the band.

The nice thing about the album is that it has a pop sense to it, so you aren't just left with 15 minute long songs that loop the same beat at 220bpm. 

I threw "Bird 1" on my latest run mix, and will likely play this album around the house when cleaning up.  Of course I wouldn't be a real computer programmer if I didn't turn to electronica every so often and I could see throwing this on. 

Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 3 out of 5 stars for Pretty Good.