Second Toughest In The Infants

While I doubt that I will be rushing back to sit through this hour plus record again, I can say that I was impressed by the immaculate vibe this record brings. This sounds like it could be the soundtrack of a stylised British action flick or video game. This is techno that goes places and doesn't suffer from stagnation. It can be ambient and atmospheric in places, while being energetic and heart-racing in others. While the length is unnecessary, this is the most I have enjoyed an electronic album whilst doing this project.

I feel like much of this smart, stylish 90s electronic album is not designed for the dancefloor, but for listening in the lounge room while coming down from a big night out. It is more intelligent and varied than many EDM albums (largely attributable to the occasional use of guitar and the vocals). I have mixed feelings about the chant-like vocals -- they avoid the usual house cliche of whacking a big soul vocal over the top of an electronic track to give it some drama. The repetitive, rhythmic singing -- often just a single note -- and impressionistic lyrics make the vocals an intrinsic part of the track rather than a decorative topline. But I can't work out whether I really like that or not. Jury is still out. I assume that 'Born Slippy' was an album outtake they agreed to offer up for the Trainspotting soundtrack, which accidentally then became their biggest hit and turned out not to be on the album (oops), but belatedly added to the deluxe issues. The sound is pretty sophisticated, but of that seems to come down to the judicious use of digital delays and reverb. Better than most of its genre but still doesn't really move me.

Perhaps timing is everything... I'm aware of and enjoy a few of the well known hits of Underworld, but I don't think I've listened to a full album. Well, I listened to this one in the gym this morning, and it worked really, really well! Very energising. I can't say I listened to the lyrics particularly, but the beat was excellent. Under the circumstances that I listened to it, it's a 3.5 rounded up to 4. Under different circumstances, perhaps I would have rounded down...

This is a tough one. As music to listen actively to, not for me, but as background music to iron and do chores to, it is great. It's probably great in a club as well, but I'm several decades out of my clubbing days. So ironing it is. Nothing special, but nothing horrific either 2.5, but rounded down because I probably won't seek it out again.

Ugh I thought this was gonna slap but it’s actually really boring! So disappointed man.

I don't enjoy to club anthems or underground club music adjacent mainly for its repetitive nature. Like, im listening to the same thing hows it different music? Anyway, this one though; this band seems more progressive/experimental in its nature rather than "oh yeah, this beat goes with this sound so let's just combine everything and it just sounds nice". Of course, this album does the same crap majorly, but some tracks re kind of trying to tell a story, a memory or a feeling and combines that thing with that thing(if that makes sense)such as:Confuse the waiter, air towel. Meanwhile, it also succeeds at having one of the most confusing lyrics combined lmao, type of stuff you'd prob not notice while u re shitfaced. But overall speaking, why is every track so goddamn long lol? Average track minute is 7.5 minutes that's fucking insane but i guess, that's the nature of electro. Was not for me but it's decent. 5/10

Struggled 2 stars for me

I’ve been pretty harsh on the electronic albums on this list…I actually didn’t hate this one, definitely can be a vibe at times.

Interesting, and I could keep it on while doing other things

Tällainen ihme housepop ei ainakaan tämän albumin perusteella oo mun juttu

One or two degrees away from music I’d stick on but definitely has remarkable songs. It feels like I’m in a Danny Boyle film.

This is the kind of thing Neo was listening to on his wraparound headphones while he was still loser hacker Thomas Anderson in the Matrix. Underworld still have nearly 4 million monthly listeners on Spotify, I see, but this was not for me. Too intrusive to be ambient, too annoying to enjoy.

Ganska ballt!

Satte på medan jag lagade mat. Fick inte lyssna mer än halva. Förbjuden av sambo.

Rätt bra fram till sista två tre. Hade det bara kapat dem så.

Some is knee-tapable, but most is boring, overly repetitive, and a little morose.

Good

very cool

I can understand why some might like "Second Toughest In The Infants", and I must say it has a great album title but with one exception the tracks are way too long and it gave me a headache. Not for me. 1 "Juanita: Kiteless: To Dream of Love" (2/5) 2 "Banstyle/Sappy's Curry" (2/5) 3 "Confusion The Waitress" (2/5) 4 "Rowla" (2/5) 5 "Pearl's Girl" (2/5) 6 "Air Towel" (2/5) 7 "Blueski" (2/5) 8 "Stagger" (2/5) Total - 16 Average - 2.0 442/1001 235/442 albums reviewed were new to me.

When I started this journey, I saw people complain a lot about too many British albums on the list. I thought it was nonsense but now that I’m just about halfway through, I can see what they mean. I don’t personally mind it though; most of English language music discussion on the internet – at least from my experience – is heavily biased towards American bands, American culture and American nonsense, so I actually welcome being introduced to more British music I haven’t come across yet. This is one of those names that I remember from back then, but have no recollection of what they actually sound like, besides being 90s electronics techno or what have you. Well, what do you know! This is actually really good. Most of these 90s British electronic albums have been okay, but not really something I'd feel tempted to listen to later on, but this one will definitely go on a later rotation too. The kind of stuff I've been looking for but will all thee white label 12"s, compilations and whatnot, this type of music is quite hard to get around to, coming from your standard rock type of approach to releasing music. Just give me a full-length album by an artist and I'm happy. Aight, I'm actually in a good mood today and this happened to hit just the right nerve; let's make it five stars, why the hell not. EDIT: Listened through it for the second time, as I tend to do with every album I'm pondering about giving five stars to that I'm not already familiar with. Yes, it definitely deserves it. What a great find this album is.

It’s okay. I’m not into the singing.

Awful.

A fun classic. Very nostalgic.

1/5

Bops for aliens that ate the wild berries. This probably crushed at the raves.

Not my style. Not too off-putting just not for me

Good enough background electronica. Didn’t do anything to move me but I enjoyed it being on

odd little electronic album, fun drum samples, ethereal vocals, hits some fun breaks. definitely in the realm of IDM, not my favourite kind of electronic music but certainly worth a listen.

Good sound, 3 stars

Sonically I don't mind this, but the length of both the individual tracks and the album as a whole means it really overstays its welcome to me. Rating: 2

I can only judge this on the criteria that I’ve judged the other albums on, which is how much I’ve enjoyed listening to it. Very subjective I know but man, outside of sitting about the house doing ecstasy I can’t imagine a reason to put this on. Good production

Liked this way more than I thought I would

Feels like the soundtrack to a 00’s street racing game.

i have really fallen in love with a Lot of underworlds discography this year, so much scratches my brain Just right tbh i was surprised that dubnobasswithmyheadman wasnt the album chosen for this list considering dark and long is on there which is one of their more notable songs (it goes Hard fwiw) and in my personal opinion i think a hundred days off would also have been a good album choice as its really solid all around BUT second toughest in the infants has A Lot of strong points and is also highly enjoyable!! i Genuinely love the buildup of the longer songs (juanita kiteless and banstyle/sappys curry), its one of the aspects of house/techno/trance/etc in general that i really enjoy the 15 min runtime really lets you just be In It and personally i dont think either song overstays its welcome overall a really solid album fave - pearls girl, honorable mention - juanita:kiteless:to dream of love

Really enjoyed this. Loved track 1 straight away - how much roooom it has but also holds you, interesting sounds, amusing spoken word and motifs to pick out but also meditative repetition. Listened round and round for 12 hours straight. Will definitely listen again. Arguably not a 5 star album as I don’t like the last track as much as the other but a 4.5 for sure.

I am not a electronic music aficionado, so Underworld is all new to me. I enjoyed a lot of these tracks, as they are prone to more atmosphere/emotion that I am used to with EDM. My assumption is that this being Welsh has something to do with the uniqueness of it. Dark or corse at times, but also organic sounding thanks to the guitars and poetry of the lyrics. Does have some booming dance beats but doesn't fall into mindless drum machine monotony. Its techno but for smart people maybe?

Has it's ups and downs. Liked it for the most part. 3/5.

IMO “Pretty boring” is kind

Bored halfway through the first song

I need to listen more but liked what i heard this first go round with the album.

3.5

It sounds like I’m damning it with faint praise, but it didn’t feel as long as I thought it might do when I saw it was 75 minutes.

DNF. Just mindless electronic noise.

Not bad grooves but way too long

Don't like that

Se vc não está drogado em uma pista de dança nos anos 90, vai precisar se drogar pra escutar o disco. Insuportável. 16 minutos de techno para uma música apenas. Insuportável.

1996 electronic, it was ok.

Banger after banger after banger. An amazing of edm with some rock and really interesting vocals. Really listenable for a long album, and the final track is killer. Also the cover is sick

I love a good electronica album and this fit the boundaries. Good beats, the triple tracks are a great touch.loved the opening and their style is nice, not dance hall, not pure soundscape. It was fun!

Enjoyed this more than I thought or should have. The longer two starter tracks in particular. Although a bit repetitive I liked the guitar flourishes which popped up occasionally which ensured I didn’t become too bored. Another saving grace is that there is an underlying Trainspotting vibe which has to be expected even though as far as I’m aware none of the soundtracks appear on this album. For that you need the Super Deluxe over 4 hours version. I’ll choose life over that. 3/5 22/9/26

Sorry but drum and bass music will always just sound like the Smash Bros Melee menu theme

Not my thing at all. After a while, especially on second listen, I didn’t actively hate it. But it just didn’t do it for me. There were some cool moments where it sounded like Pink Floyd club tunes. But I wouldn’t return to it

430/1089 start the first song to immediately hear the most 90s british techno beat ever made Banstyle/Sappy’s Curry is SO PinkPantheress x Mario Kart Wii coded i really like it this album was right up my street, i quite enjoyed listening to it and could see my rating increasing on repeat listens faves: banstyle, pearl’s girl, air towel, stagger 75/100

..

When Michael Mann calls me to put together a soundtrack for his next film I'll probably use a few tracks from this album. Otherwise, I'm not likely to listen to it again.

Really hypnotic. Love how the rhythms slowly change and the bass keeps pushing along.

Hypnotising. Not in a good way, but in a way that made me post a timestamped picture of their dick in the thread I was reading. Quite scary innit

Not their best album but still god damned good. Cut 2 of these songs and it's a 5

The opening tracks are enough to get this over the 4-star hump for me. Love this group in general, there is some great stuff on here.

Underworld deliver a set of techno songs that land somewhere between the club and atmospheric sides of the genre. The first two tracks are the longest, and they flow between different motifs as they go on. There are touches of jazz, a little rock, but mostly steady techno beats. After those tracks the album stays mostly in a downtempo sound, which is less interesting. The exception is the exciting "Pearls Girl," which is likely the strongest track. The vocals add very little and the surreal lyrics usually don't work - I'd rather this be fully instrumental. There are some nice moments here, but it's stuck between not being quite exhilarating enough and not quite layered enough to work as atmospheric music - at time it feels weirdly empty. It's all too much for such a long album, but might have worked on a shorter one.

Me gusta la electrónica pero en ámbitos específicos. Muy bueno en algunas cosas y los tracks son super accesibles.

Underworld made a major splash in the music world with Born Slippy, so here is an album that doesn't contain it. If my criticism of electronic music/techno/whatever genre this really is boils down to “repetitive,” “soulless,” and “robotic”, Underworld does not do a whole lot to argue on “Juanita”, with very obviously looped beats and cyborgified, one-note vocals. By the 4 minute mark, there begins to be a bit more movement, which is an improvement, but the drone is still the heart of the beast. This isn't music for thinking, and every “riff” feels as inorganic as the last. There's a different flow when someone is playing a riff live and when someone is looping one, and this is so loop coded that I would actually be surprised if any human could play this with such consistency and lack of interest. But this is a 16 minute track. It makes up more than a full 20% of the album. Do other tracks also fade into the background as easily? Well, it takes a second, because we get another 15 minute song immediately after. It does lean a bit more into a pleasant ambiance, it does have a quirky guitar line in the second movement that feels a little more human. But this is pulse music largely. “confusion the waitress” throbs banal-ly. It layers like someone experimenting with fruityloops. Ooh, that synth hi-hat. “Rowla” just luxuriates in repetitive buzz saw. Every spoken word anywhere on the album makes it worse. Unexpectedly those longer tracks are where a few decent, shorter pieces could have been born, if any electronic club producer knew anything about editing. Now, I don't even hate background music. There's definitely a lot of ambient music that lives and dies by its movement, stuff you could listen to actively but is made to work passively. And honestly, this is probably above the median when it comes to this sort of thing. But it doesn't make a strong argument against this sort of music being the slippery slope that allowed AI to flourish 30 years later. If club music ever has no haters I'm dead. ⭐️⭐️

80/100. The first time I heard this album, it made me feel nostalgic. It’s a calm techno album, taking a more atmospheric approach. It’s a fantastic album to have on in the background, but also as a main focus. Didn’t feel like a 70+ min album, this went by fast.

++: Juanita: Kiteless: To Dream of Love, Banstyle/Sappy's Curry, Rowla, Pearl's Girl, Blueski +: Confusion The Waitress, Stagger +-: Air Towel 8,5/10

As Underworld blared out of my speaker in the kitchen during a clean up session, the album seemed just what I desired. Head bobbing, without throbbing, beats with some interesting touches added to the mix. That quality continued at times throughout Second Toughest in the Infants (a title I will have to contemplate), but new elements appeared, mainly uninteresting vocals that diminished my pleasure. A second listen had the same effect, with the closing track, “Stagger” being the most egregious violator. If seeking a neo-soul or dance club hit, improvements are needed. The vocalists themselves offered nothing compelling, and their position in the song did not help. Learn how to write a catchy chorus or deliver a powerful phrase. Otherwise stick to instrumental work until you hire a better singer and/or songwriter. Get someone to do a stronger remix, and maybe you will get that big hit.

6.5

If you could mix in part John Wick movie, part roof top bar downtown, and part shopping for jeans at Abercrombie, then you would have this soulless mess.

I need drugs and a dark basement for this to be worth listening.

Techno music that puts you in a trance. Feels like being in a futuristic rave in space. The repetition only adds to the hypnotizing vibe of the record. Very good stuff, I'm convinced everyone who dislikes this just doesn't like techno and that's fine.

Music is fine, too repetitive and tracks are too long.

When you’re in a sweaty crowded club, the dance is jumping and the vibe is high this is good. Also the high hat is somehow out of time on the first track which makes dance difficult. Stripped of context it’s meh. This isn’t a must listen. It’s a highly contextual example of house music. That’s ok. But it’s not a great album.

incredible propulsive great focus music love the energy it brings this is definitely one of those work to it techno albums that I love. the continuous build, works off anticipation and beautiful patterns

This was a tough listen. I feel like at times they overindulged in making the music they wanted to make - this is easily reflected in the overall album length and some of the tracks' length. I felt a a lot of filler was on here throughout. Some interesting sounds, but even more sounds that didn't fall well onto my ears.

- Better than expected. Long but better writing than usual ......... 3.5 rounded up to 4 because it held my interest and this type of music doesn't always do that. -

I enjoyed this much more than I expected. Or, rather, after it had mostly faded into the background, I found myself enjoying Stagger, the last track, and went back in the hope of finding more actual songs to enjoy. There were certainly bits of songs throughout. But not much of a record. 2 ‚Cook Little Pot, Cook!‘ (The Magic Porridge Pot) Suppose you go to a restaurant and the menu dazzles you with a variety of colourful and imaginative garnishes and exotic dressings; this ‚reduction’ and that ‚drizzle‘ - a ‚coulis‘ here and an ‚emulsion‘ there. Then you notice that everything is served on porridge. For all the expense of creativity there is still only one thing on the menu. Underworld will do you a nice wobbly synth riff here, and a distinctive acoustic sample there. There‘ll be inaudible spoken word, and audible spoken word and they’ll even sing a note or two. Surely their variety of hi-hat and ride sounds is second to none? Underneath these probable delights, however, is harmonic and structural stasis - sometimes just one chord for minutes on end. This over even phrases of 4/4 at about 130bpm. For an hour. And thirteen minutes. Who are these unfortunates, like the poverty stricken family in the Brothers Grimm‘s Magic Porridge Pot story, who eat porridge all day long and are thankful? I‘m not knocking porridge, which is very nice. However, I will take the ‚Born Slippy .NUXX‘ and no starter or dessert, thank you. 1.5/5

It's possible I could be more bored.

No.

good lord, not another one of these

Well. those songs were way too long....say repetitive a lot. I'm not sure why a lot of electronic music has the same characteristic of going on and on and on, but I've found that in a lot of the groups that perform electronic music. It is possible that there are groups out there that don't, but this was not one of them. I found this album to be repetitive and boring, but it wasn't really offensive, it just became background noise after a short period of listening to it.

That's what I call mechanical music. A strong rhythm line that goes on forever, with a minimal jingle repeating ad nauseam, some slight variations every now and then, sometimes voice over. Good for repetitive tasks that don't need chatty music but just beats.

Okay.

Favourite Track(s):

The name “second toughest in the infants” really sets you up with the expectation that this album is going to be some unserious shit and then you get transported to the party dimension for 1 hour and 13 minutes

Dos criadores de Born Slippy, uma das minhas canções eletrônicas favoritas, eu tinha altas expectativas para Underworld. Todas as expectativas foram não apenas superadas, mas também arregaçadas. Que álbum ótimo, batidas eletrizantes e hipnotizantes, cenários musicais oníricos e cativantes. Uma escuta imensamente satisfatória que me conquistou fortemente. Fiquei cogitando deduzir a nota um pouco por causa de sua duração e pelo fato que é indiscutivelmente bem repetitivo, mas acredito que esse é um dos raros casos onde ambos fatores complementam o disco. Muito bom. 5/5

I first discovered Underworld on the Trainspotting soundtrack, and have been a fan ever since!

Soundtrack to a rave organized by your dad? Corporate chic? I don’t know what to make of this beyond the fact that I don’t like it much. It’s not objectionable though.

4/5

The only Underworld song that I was aware of going into this was Born Slippy, which I have enjoyed for a long time despite not really being in my typical musical wheelhouse. While that song isn't on this album, these tunes seem to be from the same Underworld era. They don't hit the same way Born Slippy hits, though. It's not a bad listen, and certainly did the job decently enough as background music while I worked, but I don't see myself returning this album.

Okay, I accidentally listened to Dubnobasswithmyheadman instead. Oops. However both albums were good and kept me entertained during a long train journey, as I crocheted yet another Jimothy.

A little repetitive but fun

Not my thing - electronic sounds - compelling, but boring. Could play in the background. Enjoyed Banstyle/Sappy's Curry and Blueski the most. 2/5

Propa rave cunt. Really cool beats and some crazy going songs. Wish I got to discover this a little sooner because it's great music for driving like a retard. My car liked this music so much that it broke down right after the album was over.

Noooooobody cares.

Boring techno music

meh nothing inspiring or interesting but not offensive either good background music for doing a puzzle with your cousin

1/5. Find repetative techno music very boring, layered or not.

Strong classic EDM

Underworld have a very cool, slow moving aesthetic which you could get lost in. They take their time with all things and every moment is earnt, they're not being overindulgent. I particularly like how the percussion is worked into the overall sound and the production is of course, absolutely fantastic. I am a bit of a fiend for punch melodies in my electronic music, and that is where Underworld is lacking. There's a lot of interesting progression of rhythm and beats, but melody takes a bit of a sideline, although I like that we get some somewhat melodic vocals on the final track which is a nice contrast. Ultimately it's not a sound I'd return to too often, though some of the gentler moments do seem to have inspired The Field who is in my regular rotation.

Second Toughest in the Infants is getting a low 5, on first listen it's likely my favourite Underworld album so far, amazing sounds, heavy and euphoric, v v consistent

Choose death