why don't you poll me I feel like flying to... the UNDERWORLD Poll Results thread -- produced by Smith & Hyde for ILM Artist Poll #102

kinda wish more of the album was in the vein of "holding the moth" idk

og holding the moth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYm03yOWd1s

album version is way better

I would say that having spent the last few weeks listening almost exclusively to UW, Barbara Barbara is now easily my third favourite album of theirs. So many great tunes.

barbara barbara is in contention for their best front-to-back

it's an amazing record

Only 2 votes for Oblivion With Bells is surprising. I'd think a lot of ILXors would dig that one.

― frogbs, Thursday, November 7, 2013 1:06 AM (six years ago)

ten years ago an Underworld albums poll could get 86 voters on ILM

Barking is way too low, wtf

I actually considered not including dubnobass on my ballot just to give Second Toughest an edge.

But that would've been senseless.

> ten years ago an Underworld albums poll could get 86 voters on ILM

Never noticed that poll. Cool. You could get that many again on a simple pick-one poll?

Second Toughest came a long way. Let's do this again in 2030.

Thinking about the two or three ballots that didn't have dubno or Second Toughest on them

it's all good. Some surprisingly strong feelings for Barking going on. A long career!

I've been to Barking. Had a pal who lived there. Convenient overground connection from Gospel Oak. I won't say it's an idyll but I do find the odd quiet emptiness and wide residential roads of the 'burbs strangely pleasant and novel.

I don't recall ever being in Romford but damp, foresty parts of Essex with lots of cars with spoilers used to make me think of Underworld.

Ring Road is entirely freestyled isn't it

Ring Road is a lot of fun. Not an album highlight but it makes me smile. My favourite of their rappier tracks. Dunno whether it was off the dome (⌒‿⌒)

none of their tracks in that mode have ever worked for me unfortunately

All of their tracks like that are terrible. It's only this year that I've been able to sit through the entirety of "Bruce Lee".

xp I've had very little time in the UK... handful of days walking around (oh look it's Trottenham Court Rd!) and happened to be around for Badly Drawn Boy playing the Barking Folk Fest, free show, grand day, nice area. Old fave.

xp Lol. Bruce Lee just kind of boring compared to Ring Road. It's funny how much they've wanted to make that vein work, yknow? Like Bruce Lee as a single?? People lump in "Hundred Weight Hammer" as well but I find that's some totally new direction... the rare one I can't follow them on!

burning from the inside

I remember an interview at the time where Karl compared Barking to Worcester and said the people were much more friendly in Barking. My stepmother is from Romford and I went to high school in Worcester and I have to assume there is a chasm between Romford and Barking.

There was also a Jonathan Meades thing on Essex which I always associate with this.

Bruce Lee is great

Ring Road is terrible xps

This is reminding me to watch the "Edgelands" documentary DVD that was bundled with Karl's album. I just recently picked that up. For all they've said about almost splitting in the early part of the '10s, it was cute to read in the booklet's thanks, "For friendship, inspiration & being Welsh: RICK SMITH"

I did not vote for "Bruce Lee" but I did vote for "Bruce Lee (Dobropet)."

oh yeah! i don't think i've heard this since the single release. How the hell is it not on the Beaucoup box?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN51V4_gm8w

"bruce lee" and "ring road" are such a bizarre glimpse into a non-existent genre

they'd be a grime act now if BL took off

I think Karl rhyming "shirts" with "shirts" a bunch kinda confirms it's freestyled. plus that bit where he's like "I gotta stop..."

frogbs, there's one recurring noise in the album version that annoys me and distracts me the whole song. It first occurs on the downbeat at 1:40 and it just annoys the f outta me.

you're talkin about that little "pew pew pew" sound right? yeah that is a bit unusual

"Ring Road" is a fixed "Bruce Lee"

they're both great, weird and silly but so catchy and funky

I love Ring Road. The beat and delivery was awkward at first, but i adjusted to it. I often find myself repeating the 'people are squinting to block out the sun, complaining or soaking it up' lyrics.

one interesting thing about it is that apparently the backbeat is part of some sample pack, which afaik UW never really used before. someone pointed out that the same bit was used in a Family Guy ad.

Rick Smith, reluctant hiphop producer?

My internet might be back! (they didn't fix anything, but it's online now i guess?)

i copy

the awkward spacing of seh-cuu-rity on Ring Road sounds like a Mike Skinner influence

but what if Bruce Lee / Ring Road / Hundred Weight is what all of Karl's lyrics sound like before Rick cuts them up?

Imagine what he must have thought when he heard the first Streets record (like 3 years after Bruce Lee).

"secuuuruhty", definitely

If we're hanging out in here talking about tracks anyway, is a top 77 really enough?

Nope

I once put on King of Snake at a spontaneous dance party in my kitchen where there was a guest named Bruce Lee. Real shame I didn't think of it then.

Would folks be up for a little extra countdown, even if we don't have full-on fancy nashwan graphics?

YES

ahundredtracksoff

^ VERY GOOD PREAMBLE NAME

The lowest-scoring track received just one point, and was released in 2019.

The lowest-scoring track to get multiple votes scored two points, and was released in 1979.

I was one of the voters for that then

and was released in 2019.

(in studio form: it had been performed live from the early C21st, and included in part on a live album.)