Underworld "Barking"

This is a band I go all the way back to 1984 with, only then they were called Freur.  The debut album "Doot-Doot" was #6 on the Mad Rocker's Top Albums from that year and it still holds firm twenty-six years later.  There's a track on it called "Theme From the Film of the Same Name" that is the definition of cinematic music.  Anyway, another failed album later and the band reforms as Underworld in 1988, putting out my favorite two albums by them, "Underneath the Radar" and "Change the Weather."  "...Radar" charted and I know we had a pocket of sales in the TN market because I pushed as hard as I could, getting local DJ's to like it and spin it.  These records were certainly groove driven, danceable pop music, but they didn't connect as well as they should have.  The band's Karl Hyde and Rick Smith were never afraid of experimentation, so they added a DJ for "dubnobasswithmyheadman" and became more trance/house/techno and much more critically acclaimed, but that's where they lost me.  I've never been one for bips and boop noises in my music, especially looped for what seems to be hours.  Then the song "Born Slippy" from the movie Trainspotting awakened the world to Underworld and the rest is club/dance music history. 

So here it is five albums and some fifteen years later and I see the release of "Barking."  "Ah, what the hell, let's give it a sample listen," I say to myself and I find that there are some of the old elements of Underworld that I used to enjoy, ie. vocals I can understand and happy dance beats, not the numbing, dumbing drone that I'm much too old for.  No Ecstasy for me!  Well, there is some of that sound here, too, but it's only about three tracks, and many of the younger, raving reviewers like these.  Me?  I absolutely love two of the old school tracks, and yes, the Mad Rocker can still call them as one of my favorites is the new single currently being pushed on the American market.  Here's the band on Jimmy Fallon just the other night supporting the record.  It should be a smash hit, and so should the track "Between Stars." 

"Barking" is truly an assemblage of past styles into a record that could please a large demographic of humans.  There's even a couple of those ambient/atmospheric/environmental pieces that scream for a black lite, a lava lamp, some Gainesville Green and a Quaalude (look it up, kids).  WHEW!