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James Lavelle (now shorn of co-conspirator, Richard File) returns with an album that's not quite an album. End Titles...is a collection of works relating to, inspired by or written for the moving image. Like most soundtracks it works in part.
As befits an outfit known more for their ubiquity in the remixing world, what you get is heavy on atmosphere and light on really fine tunes. Luckily for soundtrack work this makes far more sense than on previous song-based collections. The instrumentals here divide into short mood pieces like End Titles, Synthetic Water, Even Balance and In A Broken Dream. All give welcome pause for thought between the actual songs. Longer pieces like Trouble In Paradise tend to be Ennio Morricone-inspired slices of string sultriness, tipping into bombast at times.
Meanwhile, on the songs most of the guests (and it wouldn't be an Unkle album without a host of those) have worked with Lavelle before. And most of them were featured on the band's last album, War Stories. Nocturnal (with a massed chorus of Chris Goss, James Petralli AND Robbie Furze) chugs along like a testosterone-pumped early Eno number or an LCD Soundsystem outtake. But Chemical's skittering Buckley-esque dash is actually weakened by Josh Homme's indistinct whine. The trouble is the generic big beat-driven heroics are just TOO generic: Four-to-the-floor beats bolted together over rather cluttered productions.
That said, the tracks with Clayhill's Gavin Clarke such as Blade In The Back work well, as does the bubbling, brooding Heaven. However, Open Up Your Eyes, with Abel Ferrara doing a Bob Dylan impersonation is probably best glossed over.
In the end one wishes that Unkle had gone all out for a record filled with moody atmospherics. As such End Titles... only half succeeds. --Chris Jones
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Unkle follow the amazing War Stories with their latest collection 'End Titles' and it is just as good as its predecessor, in fact its probably a more coherent 'album' (despite what Lavelle says), The guest vocals of Gavin Clark on 5 tracks give the whole CD its core with 'Against the Grain' particularly beautiful. Having heard some of these tracks on earlier releases (tracks 5, 6, 7 & 8 but 8 has new vocals from Josh Homme) does not detract from this or any other Unkle release for me. They are reference points for the new material and it all very quickly sweeps the listener along and delivers everything the fan has come to expect from Lavelle & co. The glam riffs and breathy vocals are retained with Ghosts (James singing again I think) reminding me of Love & Rockets stuff (any one remember them?)and this certainly does sound like War Stories but its a danger to compare either too closely for fear of belittling either. This could be part 2 but it is so much more than that. James is the master at getting the best out of his collaborators then immediately moving on to the next project and this is the latest output for followers of the work in progress that is Unkle. Black Mountain are back with 'Clouds' & this is as strong as anything on the brilliant CD 'In the Future', McBean & Unkle could make a whole album together, but I find that applies to all of Unkles best work with other artists, you want a whole LP! That is delivered brilliantly here in part with the Clayhill tracks. Loads of 'real' songs on here, lots of atmospheric film like interludes, great guest spots ( Abel Ferrara coming on like a frazzled Bob Dylan or Nick Cave on 'Open up your Eyes'), instrumentals all with Unkles trademark majestic and dark production. This is the sound of a band at its peak but constantly evolving, these tunes rock hard & at nearly 74 minutes & 22 tracks it is great value. For fans, this is the latest treat in what was surely a feast already.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Having first got into Unkle back in the days of Psyence Fiction, I hadn't kept up with their album releases and really lost touch with the "band". Bought this on the off chance and I'm so glad I did - it has to be one of their best albums (I've now "caught up" with Unkle again!!). A perfect blend of atmospheric and cinematic tracks with some guitar riff laden dance tunes - epic!
I'm not a big fan of some of Unkles's scratch heavy mixes, but this is outstanding from start to finish - can't wait for the new album (love the new Kraftwerk - esque single).End Titles...Stories for Film
I'm not a big fan of some of Unkles's scratch heavy mixes, but this is outstanding from start to finish - can't wait for the new album (love the new Kraftwerk - esque single).End Titles...Stories for Film
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The ever-evolving UNKLE have moved beyond the critically-lauded plaudits of their inception to a new configuration. Taking a cue - intentional or not - from U2's "Passengers" project, UNKLE have produced their third album in a year (if you include the Australian/Japanese "More Stories" rarities collection), with a record made and designed for the visual medium. Almost everything on this record was originally part of a soundtrack, be it for an advert, film, or documentary, and "End Titles" collects all their disparate work in one place, saving the elite UNKLE collector a ton of money.
Is it any good? Well, in a word, yes. UNKLE don't really release any stinkers, and they appear to be rather prolific of late, mining a creative slew that appears positively mogadon compared to The Beatles-album-every-six-months, but by modern standards - where four years between records is seen as the norm - UNKLE are aflame. The UNKLE template rests on three distinct elements, vast and sweeping string sections designed for cinema, unusual and unconventional rhythms, and understated vocals from a variety of guests. Whilst this fails to produce a coherent authorial voice for the record, it allows UNKLE not to be dominated by one musical or lyrical vision, every song sits both together and alone.
At a majestic 74 minutes - and not one of them is wasted - "End Titles" sounds like a coherent and important listening experience instead of what you might fear it is : it could be a hodgepodge compilation of random leftovers, but thankfully, "End Titles" is as much a record as anything else in their discography, in the traditional sense of a distinct listening experience with a musical and thematic narrative combines to form a whole greater than the sum of the parts rather than just a bunch of songs stuck together and placed on a plastic disc. It is a damn fine album, without any sense of filler or a distinct musical dip in quality at any point, that encompasses UNKLE at their finest. It may in fact, be their best record yet, and it's a shame that more bands don't do this kind of thing, clearing the decks and tidying up the loose ends to create an interesting, and important, curiosity in their body of work. "End Titles" is a fine record with no sense of any reason to exist other than as a musical work that deserves to stand on it's own merits. And it's merits are well deserved.
Is it any good? Well, in a word, yes. UNKLE don't really release any stinkers, and they appear to be rather prolific of late, mining a creative slew that appears positively mogadon compared to The Beatles-album-every-six-months, but by modern standards - where four years between records is seen as the norm - UNKLE are aflame. The UNKLE template rests on three distinct elements, vast and sweeping string sections designed for cinema, unusual and unconventional rhythms, and understated vocals from a variety of guests. Whilst this fails to produce a coherent authorial voice for the record, it allows UNKLE not to be dominated by one musical or lyrical vision, every song sits both together and alone.
At a majestic 74 minutes - and not one of them is wasted - "End Titles" sounds like a coherent and important listening experience instead of what you might fear it is : it could be a hodgepodge compilation of random leftovers, but thankfully, "End Titles" is as much a record as anything else in their discography, in the traditional sense of a distinct listening experience with a musical and thematic narrative combines to form a whole greater than the sum of the parts rather than just a bunch of songs stuck together and placed on a plastic disc. It is a damn fine album, without any sense of filler or a distinct musical dip in quality at any point, that encompasses UNKLE at their finest. It may in fact, be their best record yet, and it's a shame that more bands don't do this kind of thing, clearing the decks and tidying up the loose ends to create an interesting, and important, curiosity in their body of work. "End Titles" is a fine record with no sense of any reason to exist other than as a musical work that deserves to stand on it's own merits. And it's merits are well deserved.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Cinematic
This album is exactly what it says it is: a compilation of scores that they've made for films. Personally I think putting it togther as an album was a great idea and, in my... Read more
Published 2 months ago by JT
Good - but quality of recording questionable
Only started listening to the album today, first impressions are good. However, like an earlier review here, the audio quality leaves a lot to be desired - glad it's not just me!
Published on 7 Dec 2009 by Mr. M. Franklin
Simply stunning
An amazing return to form - this album is up there with Never Never Land. I bought it on spec slightly wary after their last outing War Stories and was completely blown away by the... Read more
Published on 11 Feb 2009 by J. Desborough
Favourite Album At The Moment!!!!
I thought it was going to be a hard job for UNKLE to beat "War Stories" but they have proved their talent by producing an album that I can't stop playing on my album. Read more
Published on 11 Jan 2009 by Mr. Marc Macinnes
everything about it is brilliant
I really can't fault this album in any way. Who would have thought UNKLE could release something to better War Stories, but I think this has. Read more
Published on 27 Aug 2008 by mookster
Hit and Miss
There are some decent tracks on this album but there's also a few to pad out the album,my main gripe is that the actual recording quality is poor,this is unusual for a "band" like... Read more
Published on 22 July 2008 by Mr. I. P. Grieve
odyssey in rome
This sounds good.... Although I like the electro UNKLE, this is a good departure.
Some cracking instrumentals for the car here. Read more
Some cracking instrumentals for the car here. Read more
Published on 15 July 2008 by martin price
What happened to the once magnificent UNKLE?
This album is just terrible, its just noise and moaning. I was a die-hard UNKLE fan but i'm not a loving of his new sound and the direction Lavelle's music is heading. Read more
Published on 7 July 2008 by I. Airey
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