Untrue is the second studio album by British electronic music producer Burial. Released on 5 November 2007 by Hyperdub, the album was produced by Burial in 2007 using the digital audio editing software Sound Forge. Untrue builds on the sound established by Burial on his eponymous debut album from the previous year, notably through its more prominent use of pitch-shifted and time-stretched vocal samples. The album, like Burial's previous work, also draws on influences from UK garage, ambient, and hardcore music.
Untrue received widespread acclaim from critics, who praised Burial's production style on the album and generally hailed it as a progression and improvement over his prior musical output. It placed on the albums charts of Belgium and the United Kingdom and produced a single, "Ghost Hardware". Untrue later appeared in several publications' lists of the year's best albums, and received nominations for the Mercury Prize and the Shortlist Music Prize.
In the years following its release, Untrue has since been viewed as a landmark album in the dubstep genre, and in electronic music in general. In a 2017 article, Pitchfork called the album "the most important electronic album of the century so far".
Untrue by Burial is one of my favorite albums of this century. Fantastic dubstep in soundscape that are almost empty, but still a lot happens. Every sound is something that adds a meaningful element to each song. This album sounds laidback while it's still danceable. One of the essential albums in electronic music.
"Archangel" is the feel-bad song of the summer, every summer (since I started listening to Burial in 2024)
My first Burial was his E.P. Antidawn, after some online mag (Pitchfork, maybe) raved about it. Imagine the broken vinyl effects and ghostly vocals without any hook or danceable beat. I really liked it, so it was only a matter of time before I checked out some of his other stuff.
It's a good thing I have heard Untrue several times before, since my mood wasn't particularly great this morning. Grey windy weather, a long commute, an over-tired brain who just wouldn't shut off the night before,
yadda yadda yadda.
Untrue, as miserable and dark it can sound in places, alternately balances it out with catchy rhythms and warm swathes of ambient. Also those 'musique concrete', random clips of people talking is weirdly comforting and adds to its atmosphere.
Cons: that tinkly sample of a bullet casing hitting the floor, as heard in several tracks
Pros: everything else
HL: "Archangel", "Endorphin", "Etched Headplate", "Shell of Light", "Raver"
One of the most evocative albums of all time. I feel like everybody gets transported to the same cold rainy concrete jungle at night while listening to this. Incredible how much can be done with, for lack of a better term, so little.
Strong 4/5.
This is the sort of trippy, darker electronic music that I associate with an after-hours wind-down after a night out at a club. As such, it isn’t something I would typically put on the stereo but it is a very good example of its genre and worthy of a listen… even if you don’t find yourself wanting that wee-hours-of-the-morning chill out.
Incredible how prescient and influential this LP remains, sounding like it was released in the late teens rather than 2007. The IDM meets club vocals composition yields tracks that feel rich yet isolated, full of emotion in an uncaring void. It’s clear why this album remains so admired and tops most albums of all time lists, another clear miss for the official 1001 even two decades on.
It's good electronic music, but my base for good electronic music is so high living in Berlin where I can walk into any tiny club or dance and hear something 10x better than this.
My personal rating: 3/5
My rating relative to the list: 4/5
Should this have been included on the original list? No.
I listened to Untrue twice, once on speaker and once on headphones, and agree the immersive experience is better, it's a cool soundscape that can easily tell a story but really would be at its best behind footage or as the soundtrack to lived experiences. As a standalone piece, solid 3/5, can see why it'd be more resonant with some people though.
It seems like people who like this kind of thing like this a lot. So I conclude it's just not my genre. Crackle crackle crackle crackle. Ambient all-interlude or the usual repetitive beats, distinguished by sounding like somebody is playing it from a couple floors down the enclosed stairwell of my 90s college dorm. Soothing enough to play in the background.
The first track was probably AI generated under the prompt of ‘make the most annoying song possible for this listener’. Tedious repetition of a phrase over tuneless ‘beats’.
This might well be the best electronics album ever. I’ll never know. Because there is no way on earth I’m listening to the albums that are worse than this.
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