Search - Unkle :: Never Never Land

...Now the Second Time Means More to Me

N. Satterfield | MY-AMI, Florida, usa, EARTH | 01/13/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A lot has changed in the four years since UNKLE released the seminal "Psyence Fiction" album, treated as more of a Mo Wax version of "This Mortal Coil" than a cohesive album, "Psyence Fiction" was panned by music critics but met with commercial success selling over 400K copies worldwide. A bit of a feat when you consider the UK, Japan, and US releases contained different tracks (or versions thereof) and varying artwork. But that is the past and "Never, Never, Land" IS the future, a cohesive, mind-blowing future.At the core "Never, Never, Land" is still an amalgam of artists working under the direction of an expert production team, Mo Wax label head James Lavelle and Mo Wax's primary engineer Richard Fine. Yet this time around the result feels more like an album than a collection of singles. The most apparent difference is the maturity and focus, no more meandering, this time UNKLE mean business."Never, Never, Land" opens with "Back and Forth" a spoken word segment that serves as introduction to bridge the four-year gap between and embrace the inevitable changes from "Psyence Fiction" to now. Abruptly the first notes of "Eye for an Eye" sound and the journey begins opening up a world filled with splashes of color, spiraling nuclei, and Futura 2000's pointmen (the militia of armed aliens that have become synonymous with UNKLE). "In a State", the second single released from NNL, follows revealing the inner workings of James Lavelle and Richard File's masterpiece. The production on this track in particular is astounding, it opens with a single piano, and an acoustic guitar follows with Fine's exemplary falsetto vocals. By the time the beats drop Aidan Lavelle and Jarvis Cocker's synthesizer programming and Mani's bass have seduced the listener into a sonic environment made complete only by the 140 tracks of background vocal orchestrated by Graham Gouldman (10cc) last heard on "I'm Not In Love".File and Lavelle serve up the host of vocalists and musicians one would expect from UNKLE including: Brian Eno, Jarvis Cocker (PULP), 3D (Massive Attack), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Joel Cadbury (South). They even manage to reunite Mani and longtime UNKLE collaborator Ian Brown for the first time since The Stone Roses split up. As one might imagine the result is by far the best recording of its kind for 2002 and possibly for quite a few to come. There is literally not a bad track on the entire album, instrumentals cascade into vocal tracks making the whole voyage engaging from start to finish.**

The entire package is made complete with the addition of longtime Mo Wax art director Ben Drury and photographer Barney Bankhead, also from Mo Wax, as well as the aforementioned Futura 2000. The limited edition UK release contains the CD and a DVD in a gorgeous two-piece box. Included on the DVD is the McLaren Award winning anti-war short for "Eye for an Eye" and "The Hope Street Sessions", a documentary about the 8-panel album cover painting by Futura 2000. (Note: the DVD is region 2 PAL format) It is slated for release in the US in JAN/FEB 2004 and I can only hope that the packaging will remain intact for stateside UNKLE fans. As of yet, the only publicly stated difference is the replacement of hidden track "Awake the Unkind" with "No Pain, No Gain"."Never, Never, Land" mixes all of the musical styles that have been brewing in the Mo Wax camp since it's inception in the early 90's. Like many of Lavelle's projects, it is a milestone of modern music and as such it is an album that will most likely be overlooked for quite some time until the rest of the world catches up to UNKLE.**If forced with prolonged vicious arm-twisting I would list "What are you to me?", "Reign", "Invasion", and the singles previously listed as notable favorites, but I figure I'd suffer a dislocated shoulder first."

Unlike anything from this world

gray | 08/19/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"UNKLE's second album is unbelievably good. I bought Psyence Fiction on a whim years ago and listened to it endlessly. I lost it somewhere along the way and while looking for it in record stores, I found this album. I was hoping it would be a continuation of PF, and was totally let down. But in a good way. This album goes in a different direction. Its hard to describe it. The best way to describe to me is by saying that its like a soundtrack to an epic movie that hasnt been made yet. There arent alot of albums that you can say that you can truly listen to all the way thru and not get boring or redundant. This is one that you can stick in the cd player (especially while driving at night) and let it roll, because it really is the musical equivalent to a story unfolding, you cant skip something, or youre lost for the rest of the way. All the layers of beat, strings, found sound, vocals come together to create a real environment around you. BUY IT!"

Amazing!

Steven Piek | Calgary, Alberta Canada | 06/07/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I heard a remix of Queen's Of The Stone Age by UNKLE from the SSX3 game. The track was good. Then I was at Global Underground's site the other day looking at James' Global Underground CD he did not too long ago. I noticed there was a lot of UNKLE material and remixes on the track listing. Having done DJing myself, and some amature music production, I decided to head to my music store and have a listen. Simply amazing! The flow, the vocals and the production, flawless. A very well oiled machine. I was dissappointed to see they have a very short discography, hoping that I could back track a few albums. I hope they will continue creating more music in the future. I've been telling everyone at my work and my friends (sounds corny, I know) about UNKLE hoping they will jump on the UNKLE wagon. I saw that UNKLE has a few mixed albums as well, and I'll be getting those as well. Keep up the good work guys!"