Eno • Hyde - Someday World

Eno • Hyde
Someday World
5 May 2014
Warp

3 stars out of 5

 

Someday World is the result of a collaboration between Underworld’s Karl Hyde and the ubiquitous Brian Eno. If you’re envisioning a mash-up between “Born Slippy .NUXX” and “Sky Saw,” you’re out of luck, though Hyde’s trademark one-note vocal melodies are present here throughout the record. Instead the record is sometimes engaging but never challenging. Hyde’s lyrics are evocative and focused and Eno’s music is adequate enough, but the work as a whole is uneven and its three or four moments of brilliance are unable to counter the effects of the alternately awkward and tedious balance of the record.

“Man Wakes Up” sounds like King Crimson’s Discipline crossed with Talking Heads’ Remain in Light. Perhaps this isn’t all that surprising, considering Eno’s frequent collaboration with the former’s Robert Fripp and production of the latter. Hyde’s vocals are unmistakeably his own but also evoke Adrian Belew’s delivery on tracks like “Elephant Talk.” “Man Wakes Up” and the similarly textured “Strip It Down” and “When I Built This World” are high points of the album. Not much of the rest of Someday World approaches the same heights, unfortunately. Works like Another Green World and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts were sparks that launched thousands of creative experiments in the works of others. By contrast, Someday World feels safe, any experimentation contained within it being carefully restrained or rendered essentially invisible.

If you’re a dedicated fan of either Eno or Underworld, you will find moments on Someday World to make a listen or three worth your while, though be warned: musically this doesn’t resemble Underworld in the slightest, although Hyde’s career wasn’t always dedicated to electronica (can I get a “doot-doot”?). Myself, I’m waiting for the .NUXX remix of “Mother of a Dog.”

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger