On paper, a collaboration between Brian Eno and Underworld's Karl Hyde released on Warp Records is an exciting proposition, indeed. What's more, on Someday World, Eno is not just in a glorified producer role, as you might expect, but is very much a collaborator, playing keys, piano and adding vocals throughout. Unfortunately, the resulting album is a disappointingly pedestrian affair. With its jarring synthetic brass — which is neither as charming or amusingly ironic as its creators seem to think it is — Someday World starts off on the wrong foot from the very first bars.
Despite the interesting threading of Afrobeat and Malian-inspired polyrhythms throughout several tracks, including lead single "Daddy's Car," the album's timbral offences far outweigh its merits. "A Man Wakes Up" sounds more like Happy Mondays jamming with Level 42 than anything you might expect from a duo with Eno and Hyde's stature. The second half of the album has several redemptive compositions — "Strip It Down," "Mother Of A Dog" and "Who Rings The Bell," with Hyde's Billy Bragg-esque beat poetry vocals, being some of the more tolerable tracks on the album. Sadly, by then it's already far too late.
(Warp)Despite the interesting threading of Afrobeat and Malian-inspired polyrhythms throughout several tracks, including lead single "Daddy's Car," the album's timbral offences far outweigh its merits. "A Man Wakes Up" sounds more like Happy Mondays jamming with Level 42 than anything you might expect from a duo with Eno and Hyde's stature. The second half of the album has several redemptive compositions — "Strip It Down," "Mother Of A Dog" and "Who Rings The Bell," with Hyde's Billy Bragg-esque beat poetry vocals, being some of the more tolerable tracks on the album. Sadly, by then it's already far too late.