Underworld - A Hundred Days Off

“A Hundred Days Off” is definitely one of my favorite EDM albums, and, in my opinion, Underworld’s best work. This album mends the sloppy mistakes of their other albums. Sure, “Beaucoup Fish” was generally a pretty good album, but the percussion seemed to be off tempo. “Dubnobasswithmyheadman” featured melodies that were all too repetitive. This album picks up where the others were straggling, by having tight percussion and beauteous melodies that seem to flow endlessly throughout the whole disk.

“Mo Move” has excellent vocals and chilling melodies that skip and cut over the rhythmic percussion (which is a good thing). “Two Months Off” is a classic, everything is done just right on this track and Karl Hyde’s vocals are the icing on the cake. “Twist” is very artsy with a unique bassline and light, bleeping synth pulses laced over rhythmic percussion. “Sola Sistim” is a Chillout track that is good to listen to if you are in a depressed/relaxed mood, or if you have many questions on your mind that can’t be answered. “Little Speaker” is probably my favorite tune on the disk. It starts off minimal, with a catchy melody that will guarantee a slight head bob. Soon the vocals of a girl who makes no sense come in, and the track builds and then releases a stunning breakdown with light guitars and looping piano. I can’t help but picture a happy place in my head during this track. The only mistake on this album is “Trim”. It isn’t terribly awful, but it just isn’t a good sound. It’s like a Quazi-country/electronic song with lame vocals. “Ess Gee” is a small guitar bit. It isn’t as genius as the rest of the tracks but it sounds nice. “Dinosaur Adventure 3D” is another classic that is meant for the dance floors. The techy/futuristic bassline sounds similar to the beginning of “Out Of Control” by The Chemical Brothers. “Ballet Lane” is a pleasant Deep House track with the same guitars as “Ess Gee”, but it sounds much better here. “Luetin” is a dark & twisted track with a melody as simple as “Mo Move” but it becomes much more complex as the song progresses.

Overall, 5/5. Great work by Smith & Hyde, and it proves that Underworld can still kick ass despite the loss of Darren Emerson. Just skip past “Trim” and the album is near perfect. This album was also fundamental in introducing me to Electronic Music and it is a recommended first listen.

Not engaging for me all the way through, but beautiful in places nonetheless. I don't consider it a disappointment at all -- did people expect them to keep looping "Born Slippy" for all eternity? The fact that they took on a lot of odd directions for this album confirms for me that Underworld is an art collective, not just a bunch of pop stars. (But they probably like being pop stars too.) As noted above and rarely contested, Two Months Off is an epic track on a level of success with Born Slippy. Completely beautiful and bright to me -- it's a song about naive love and the inspiration that comes with. It's why I like Underworld so much -- on one hand they're a true "electronic" act, but on the other hand they make songs about life more than tracks about machines. Their songs are about something sorta consistent I think (maybe inner conflict and loss involving love interests?), and so I feel them in a completely different vein than most other tech/house. Anyway, I'm getting off track.

So yeah, Two Months Off is without a doubt the highlight of the record and a nice thing to hear after the melancholy and somewhat anxious opening (which is covered with a beautiful stream of vocals by the way -- I can't overlook how nice Hyde's voice sounds even when his lyrics reach the point of absurdity). What a great freakin' track. The thickest bursts of synths, samples, pads, chords and whatever the hell you could imagine crammed into the mix. The beat almost seems like an afterthought. I admire the engineering on this track because the percussion is unusually concealed in the mix -- you could probably take it out and still have a great track. But it's 909 programming at its best and goes a bit beyond the thump-thump underpinning of most Underworld tracks ("not that there's anything wrong with that") by getting quite spastic in the breakiest kind of 2-step manner. You do sorta have to turn this track up though, since it's not super-maximized and can sound a little washed out -- at lower volumes -- next to the flaringly finalized DSP sounds of today.

Next up they take the "let's get kind of chilled and conventionally instrumented" route which is fine by me. Why should they have to keep churning out dance anthems? Smith seems to know a thing or two about music and plays some nice stuff here. But no, wait, no.... -- hey, it turns into a dance track! And a quite nice deep techy housey thing nonetheless. Lingerings of Detroit. Good.

I'm not going to go through all the tracks, but basically they're very good until I hit "Trim." They were definitely trying to be "creative" here with some kind of folk/country/808 fusion thing going on. Doesn't work for me. It's not totally bad, it's just a case of, if I want to hear that kind of music I'll put on a different kind of album. Oh yeah, then they get into a classical guitar thing, which is kinda the same deal for me. But damnit, it's what no one expected them to do, and that's why they did it and that's why people hate on it and that's what makes this album awesome.

Dinosaur Adventure 3D is yet another decent high-energy sawtooth banger. Leutin is an deep, entrancing epic about loss, disillusionment, and depressed states. It closes the album very, very nicely. I like this a lot. If you don't like the "alternative direction" tracks, skip them, but this is without a doubt the container for some of Underworld's truly memorable work.

I've been a fan of Underworld for many years, but this album is not up to thestandards of previous releases. that said, I feel it can't be judged on the same standards, as it's not the same team, just like we wouldn't judge Underworld MK1 against MK2. This album is a triumph. i haven't listened to it all that much yet, but already, I can say, th\t listening to the likes of "Trim" brings me right back to Dubnobass, and sometimes leaves me wondering exactly what Emerson brought to the party. But then I realise that "Mo Move", "Dinosaur", and especially "Leutin" could have been that much better with the Emerson touch...
But, let's be clear, this is still a really good album!

A lot of people were put off by this album, but I still can't understand why. I didn't really like it at first, but after a while, I've realized how great this album is. It does sound quite different to what Underworld have done previously, but I think it was a nice change of direction. The album is VERY VERY chilled and deep. It's almost ambient in places. However, I agree that some tracks do get boring after a while - for example, "Twist" and "Little Speaker", but I really love the rest of the album. Tracks like "Two Months Off", "Luetin" and "Mo Move" make it even more special.

at first i was skeptical. it seemed a bit disappointing after the brilliant Two Months Off single was released, but after a month or so, it has really grown on me. A Hundred Days Off is an explosion of throbbing beats and beautifully assembled melodies. from the opening electronic chatterings of Mo Move all the way through the heart-pounding, pulsating action of Dinosaur Adventure 3D (one of underworld's finest) to the end, the duo has shown that they can still create captivating music despite the loss of Darren Emerson