| Artist |
UNKLE |
| Album Title: |
Where Did the Night Fall (Deluxe Edition) |
| Album Cover: |
 |
| Primary Genre |
Electronica/Dance: Electronica |
| Format |
CD (2) |
| Released |
05/10/2010 |
| Label |
Surrender All Ltd./RED |
| Catalog No |
SURRO17CDX |
| Bar Code No |
7 6692994912 6 |
| Packaging |
Box Set (2 Disk) |
| Tracks |
| Where Did the Night Fall (Deluxe Edition) |
| 1.
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Nowhere (0:40)
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| 2.
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Follow Me Down (Featuring Sleepy Sun) (4:23)
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| 3.
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Natural Selection / UNKLE Feat. The Black Angels (4:10)
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| 4.
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Joy Factory (Featuring Autolux) (3:59)
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| 5.
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The Answer (Featuring Big in Japan (Baltimore) ) (4:40)
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| 6.
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On a Wire (Featuring Elle J) (4:52)
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| 7.
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Falling Stars (Featuring Gavin Clark) (5:48)
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| 8.
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Heavy Drug (1:13)
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| 9.
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Caged Bird (Featuring Katrina Ford) (5:08)
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| 10.
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Ablivion (4:29)
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| 11.
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The Runaway (Featuring Elle J ) (3:45)
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| 12.
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Ever Rest (Featuring Joel Cadbury) (4:21)
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| 13.
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The Healing (Featuring Gavin Clark) (4:27)
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| 14.
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Another Night Out (Featuring Mark Lanegan) (5:12)
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| Where Did the Night Fall [Disc 2] |
| 1.
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Nowhere (Instrumental) (4:10)
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| 2.
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Follow Me Down (Instrumental) / UNKLE Feat. Sleepy Sun (4:43)
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| 3.
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Natural Selection (Instrumental) / UNKLE Feat. The Black Angels (4:11)
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| 4.
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Joy Factory (Instrumental) / UNKLE Feat. Autolux (3:58)
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| 5.
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The Answer (Instrumental) / UNKLE Feat. Big in Japan (4:39)
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| 6.
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On a Wire (Instrumental) / UNKLE Feat. Elle J (4:49)
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| 7.
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Falling Stars (Instrumental) / UNKLE Feat. Gavin Clark (5:50)
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| 8.
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Heavy Drug (Instrumental) (4:23)
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| 9.
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Caged Bird (Instrumental) / UNKLE Feat. Katrina Ford (5:02)
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| 10.
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Ablivion (Instrumental) (4:31)
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| 11.
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The Runaway (Instrumental) / UNKLE Feat. Elle J (3:49)
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| 12.
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Ever Rest (Instrumental) / UNKLE Feat. Joel Cadbury (4:21)
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| 13.
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The Healing (Instrumental) / UNKLE Feat. Gavin Clark (4:28)
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| 14.
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Another Night Out (Instrumental) / UNKLE Feat. Mark Lanegan (5:09)
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| Date Acquired |
07/09/2010 |
| Personal Rating |
 |
| Acquired from |
vinylsoundsbetter (Amazon) |
| Purchase Price |
19.53 |
Notes |
Deluxe two CD edition includes a book. 2010 release, the fifth studio album by the British Electronic act. This effort sees the musical mastermind of the group, James Lavelle, team up with a whole range of talented guest collaborators, (from former Screaming Trees front man Mark Lanegan to Clayhill vocalist Gavin Clark) to create a sonically dense record that encompasses musical styles as diverse as Psychedelic Rock and Minimal House. Includes the singles 'Natural Selection' featuring The Black Angels and 'Heavy Drug'.
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| Reviews |
All Music Guide Review:
Review by Jason Lymangrover
Doing away with any preconceived notions, UNKLE changed things up drastically for their fourth official album. With Richard File out of the picture and Pablo Clements picking up the reins as James Lavelle's sideman, the duo leaves trip-hop and digitally skewed breakbeats at the wayside. As a substitute, the new incarnation goes the band route, using primarily live instrumentation and a garage rock/psych pop sonic palette. Those who followed UNKLE after the breakout success of Psyence Fiction will be familiar with Lavelle's inclinations to try to rock in a post-Spooky world, which usually led him down a road of mediocre results, but where War Stories fused electronic aspects with saturated stoner rock, Where Did the Night Fall is a focused production of thick, heavily orchestrated Brit-rock, along the lines of Clinic and Muse. Per usual, vocalists take turns, phoning in from their respective area codes, and Autolux, Mark Lanegan, Elle. J, Big in Japan, Sleepy Sun, and the Black Angels turn in excellent performances. Even so, the studio band of Joel Cadbury, James Griffith, Matthew Pierce, and drummers Graham Fox and White Denim's Josh Block (among others, including the Heritage Orchestra) steal the show. The songs feel less flawed than previous experiments, with a unified vibe due to the eerie cement-wall production that overlays everything. No hip-hop MC detours. No dodgy instrumentals. Just groovy fuzz basslines, wayward drumming, chugging guitars, pulsing organs, and echoey vocals sung over minor chords that give way to tense, white-hot hooks. It’s an explicit leap into new territory for the band, and though the second half may drag a bit, songs like “Natural Selection,” “Joy Factory,” "The Answer," and “On a Wire” make for some of UNKLE’s all-time best singles, ones that rank right up there with “Rabbit in Your Headlights” and “Lonely Soul.”
Pitchfork - 5.9
Used to be that I greeted every UNKLE album that came after the infamous Psyence Fiction with, "hey, they're still at it." But now with Where Did the Night Fall hitting stores in the year 2010, there has been an UNKLE LP released in three consecutive decades-- it's going to be more of a surprise when James Lavelle stops making music.
While the resiliency of the UNKLE project is admirable, it was still a bummer that the artistic adventurousness of Lavelle had previously moved in lockstep with the ever-declining stakes. Granted, DJ Shadow may have taken whatever hip-hop influence/cred the project had with him before the turn of the century, but by 2008's quasi-soundtrack End Titles, Lavelle appeared to resign himself to a mishmash of soupy guitar instrumentals and charmless, cavernous Brit-rock.
But whether it's having their most solidified core in years (Lavelle is joined by Pablo Clements and touring bassist James Griffith of Big in Japan), Night is not only the strongest UNKLE album since Psyence Fiction, but also the first where a premium was placed on cohesion. The cover art is still a good indication of what hues Lavelle likes to work in-- silvery guitar lines, drums cloaked with shadowy reverb-- but UNKLE reinvent themselves as a workmanlike, electronically informed rock band favoring metronomic grooves. At the outset, UNKLE work surprisingly well hooking their jumper cables to psych rockers like Sleepy Sun and Black Angels and churning out major-key, bass-driven vigor. It's the rhythmic streamlining that ends up being the distinguishing sonic addition to Night, to the point where the most UNKLE-y track ("Joy Factory", featuring L.A. shoegazers Autolux) stands as an anomaly for having something akin to a breakbeat.
But-- perhaps inevitable considering the rotating cast-- Night is ultimately hamstrung by a personality vacuum. It's easy enough to enjoy Night while it's playing, but even after so many listens, it's hard to care about it. After an auspicious beginning, an assembly line of well-manicured but lyrically undistinguished songs about mental stress and relationships fail to make themselves stand out. Celebration's Katrina Ford and Mark Lanegan have enough vocal character to predictably dominate serviceable everydudes like South's Joel Cadbury and Clayhill's Gavin Clark, but by playing entirely to type (the walloping soul number, the dustbowl blues), their contributions feel more like character acting than songs that could be compelling in a vacuum.
So sure, this is UNKLE going "legit," making an album that feels like the word of a woodshedding, touring band that happens to have a revolving cast of talented vocalists (think a waaaaaay lower-risk, lower-reward Broken Social Scene). But then again, as risible as some parts of Psyence Fiction were, would When Did the Night Fall be on anyone's radar if it simply came from the band responsible for War Stories and not, say, "Lonely Soul"? They might strive for simple pleasures of yeoman's work, but you know, UNKLE continuing in this vein ultimately brings to mind Damon Dash's pledge to resurrect Roc-A-Fella Records: sketchy legacy or not, striving for an average future under the same banner kinda tarnishes the whole thing.
— Ian Cohen, May 10, 2010
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14223-where-did-the-night-fall/
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