(V2)
Herald rating: * * *
Review: Russell Baillie
Not the new album by the Brit electro-outfit (which recently went from trio to duo) but a live offering from the band's global touring after their last studio effort Beaucoup Fish - which took them almost everywhere except here (one star off for that).
And we usually wouldn't trouble ourselves with such fan-bait as live albums. Except Everything Everything is very good, its 75 minutes an epic head-rattler which, while not quite a greatest hits track-wise, more than makes up for that in its sheer, snowballing sense of excitement.
Its tension and release dynamics begin with the openers of Juanita/Kiteless and Cups as anticipation builds, letting off some steam on Push Upstairs and then hitting the only monotonous moment on the breakbeat-powered Pearls Girl. But the long home straight is something to behold.
From the grand shimmer of Jumbo through the fevered 11 minutes-plus Shudder/King of Snake, then the explosive one-two of Born Slippy Nuxx (aka the Trainspotting lager anthem with vocalist Rick Smith's motormouth in overdrive) and Rez/Cowgirl, it's both a vital live album (even the cheering adds something) and a reminder of Underworld's rock'n'rave genius.
<i>Underworld:</i> Everything Everything
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