Wednesday 19 October 2011

"The Less You Know The Better" by DJ Shadow

I once read that DJ Shadow has the biggest vinyl collection of any individual person in the world. I don't know if that's true or not, but it isn't a stretch to believe it - he's been at this game for a long time now. He released the highly influential "Endtroducing....." all the way back in 1996. Those of you who know of the album will know that this was the first time someone ever released an album comprised exclusively of samples. A landmark release in music.

He followed that release up with the well-received "The Private Press" a half-decade later. The album was a departure from the 'Endtroducing.....' sound. Whereas the former was calm and soothing, 'The Private Press' was monolithic with louder productions punctuated with powerful drum samples. Still, just like 'Endtroducing.....' before it, the album had a certain beauty to it that was hard to describe as anything more than "just a feeling inside of you". Many were disappointed with the album but it's a crime to judge it on the merits of an album released 6 years prior.

Next came 'The Outsider', aptly named for making the listener feel - for the first time ever on a DJ shadow album -  as though they were on the outside looking in. It wasn't the immersive experience that every other Shadow album had been. On top of that, DJ Shadow decided to feature artists on nearly every track. This hamstrung the artist as he couldn't organically expand on his musical ideas into gorgeous numbers the way he was able to on career highlights such as 'High Noon'. What this meant for the listener was that the songs were all very conventional in structure. This album was shunned by critics and fans alike. 

Flash-forward to his latest album - "The Less You Know The Better". Was he able to make up for his previous misfire with this release?

Return to Form

This marks the first time in almost 10 years that DJ Shadow has released a good album - yes, that's right, it is a good album. It is not without its flaws, however. 

'The Less You Know The Better' works fine as an album. Most of the songs are fine as standalone tracks. The problem here, as with The Outsider, lies in the way that DJ Shadow jumps around from track to track. Here he doesn't feature artists on every track. But between the genuinely great tracks you will still find the 'The Outsider'-esque cuts sprinkled throughout.

The album alternately grooves, rocks, and taps emotional banks that you didn't know you had. It plays like a mixtape - boldly genre-hopping as if it's trying to show you that DJ Shadow is capable of doing anything. But it's all done so remarkably well that the tracks sound like they belong on entirely different albums. 


There are a variety of sub-standard songs here - "The Warning" features some nice atmospheric work by DJ Shadow but it's undone by some very uninspired vocal-work by Tom Vek; 'Stay the Course' featuring Talib Kweli on vocals fails to gain or maintain steam; 'I've Been Trying', while perfectly enjoyable on its own merits, lacks the emotion it strives so hard to create. One can also find fault in the album's layout, too. 'Tedium', for example, is a hidden gem of a track that you might not notice because of its placement on the album.

Now the good stuff: there are tracks here that remind you that, at the top of his game, there aren't many artists more evocative than DJ Shadow. Take for instance the track "Redeemed" with its looped riffs dripping with sorrow and fabulous crooning (really, the utilization of these sampled vocals is one of the high points of the album). Another highlight is 'Let's Get It (Bass, Bass, Bass)' with its decidedly 'The Private Press'-esque sound. Try not to groove to this song as it drops continental-plate-shifting beats. Seriously, I dare you. 

Other cuts that I would recommend to listeners include "Give Me Back The Nights", which is reminiscent of 'The Residents' with its dark atmosphere and imagery; 'Def Surrounds Us', a track that takes aspects of drum'n'bass and electro and molds it all together with the signature DJ Shadow sound; 'I Gotta Rokk', a chopped-up, groove-based ode to indie rock that adds and removes layers at whim; and 'Circular Logic (Front to Back)', which features some morbid vocal samples of what appears to be two people experimenting with psychoanalytic techniques on a confused patient. 'Scale it Back', 'Back to Front (Circular Logic)', 'Border Crossing' and both parts of 'Sad and Lonely' are also worth a listen.

I highly recommend everyone give the album a spin. There are tracks here you will love, and others that you will never warm up to. The album received mixed reviews because it is, after all, a mixed bag. But there is some first-grade material here. You would be doing yourself a disservice to skip this one.

7/10 


Odds & Ends: The score I gave is for the Deluxe Edition of the album. The Standard Edition is missing two of the album highlights. I would give that a 5/10. As well, the song 'I'm Excited' doesn't appear on either version because it was pulled due to copyright issues. Do give it a listen.