Right ho, for those of you that don't know who Unkle are, they're basically a couple of guys (originally James Lavelle and some others, then James Lavelle and DJ Shadow, now James Lavelle and pretty much whoever eles he fancies working with) who tend to collaborate with lots of other bands.
Described as 'trip-hop' by many (though Unkle don't like this term), they're one of my favourite groups. You've probably heard their music before as a lot of it gets used for adverts. Most recently the BMW advert with slightly remixed Beethoven in the background and the advert with that chap driving round and the narrator bloke talking about everyone being asleep.
Anyway, the album, called 'War Stories' is something special. It features collaborations with Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Ian Astbury (The Cult), Autolux, Robert Del Naja (Massive Attack), The Duke Spirit, and Gavin Clark and has a much heavier rock feel than previous Unkle albums.
IMO It's one of those rare albums where all the tracks are good, but stand out tracks for me are 'Chemistry', 'Keys to the Kingdom', 'Price You Pay', 'Burn My Shadow' and 'Persons and Machinery'. Bonus points for it being a full 70 mins long, so very, very rare at the moment.
Only real cons (albeit minuscule) are that it can sound a bit samey (although it kinda feels like you're listening to one long track - which isn't a bad thing by any means) at times, but obviously they were going for the rock feel, so it's expected it'll continue throughout.
<b>8.5/10</b> - Play it <b>LOUD!</b>
War Stories - UNKLE
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