Quote:
Originally Posted by 34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j
do we know if that's the cover art? if so, very unusual for UW...but then again, so was Drift. and Barking for that matter.
|
I think it was Autechre that said it takes a new album for everyone to finally get used to and accept their last album for what it is.
It's getting funnier to me that this duo continually evolves faster than we're collectively ready for. Every new LP on the horizon conjures this comparison image of the Tomato-based typographic long jams from nearly 30(!) years ago, even though they've doggedly proven that their 'world is bigger than that. It's annoying as fuck when that next step doesn't jibe with us, but even when it does I have this uncertainty of "is this what it is now?" and I'm stuck between how artists move and what I waaaaant.
After this long, it seems like Rick has been working to bond past and present into one Grand Work that is :Underworld, and usually correcting/expanding our own terms of what that means. It takes some trust, a small example being: if we collectively hate the Drift sampler cover, it's more rewarding to think on why it was chosen instead of crossing our arms about it being lazy.
I don't think this situation is unique to Underworld. There's a perpetual (and necessary) disconnect between artists and audiences, in which we find our fandom through a successful blend of hype and marketing that keeps us attached to an idea, which immediately creates tension with how artists work. We make an ethos out of that idea, and it almost never aligns with where the work could go.
So what's with the uneasy legibility here? why so straightforward, cordoned off? White on neon? Let's think on what it could be, and see how it meshes with what we're hearing. It could just be a miss, but it's more fun this way.