Reading through the liner notes of an UNKLE release, you’re unlikely to be unimpressed. On previous albums, Mo’ Wax Records main man James Lavelle has collaborated with the likes of Thom Yorke, Metallica’s Jason Newstead, Richard Ashcroft and Ian Brown, not to mention DJ Shadow, who was a member during sessions for 1998 album Psyence Fiction.
But unlike the DJs and producers that rely on guest vocalists to bring character and familiarity to their sound, UNKLE’s impressive list of collaborators is more testament to their reputation and War Stories, their third studio record, is no different in that respect. Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme and Massive Attack’ 3D return, while The Cult’s Ian Astbury contributes vocals on two tracks.
But what’s so striking about War Stories is the way Lavelle, along with bandmates Richard File and Pablo Clements and all their collaborators manage to recreate the fullness of past UNKLE releases on an album that’s as organic as any rock release.
After a 20-second intro from a single female voice (How thoughtless of you/to let me down/when I thought you’d be around”), album opener Chemistry stalls for 30 seconds before exploding into a flurry of spiralling guitars and smooth strings and then breaking down with stop-start overdrive bass and the kind of tangents you’d expect from Jonny Greenwood’s guitar back in 1995. And then there’s the single Holy My Hand, which, with its surreal rhythm and bassline, is nothing short of hypnotic.
And that’s before any of the guest vocalists come out to play. The first of these, Homme’s appearance on Restless, is by no means a dull affair but fails to stand out over and above the other tracks on offer. Probably deliberately. Definitely deliberately. You get the feeling that with the calibre of stars lining up to work with UNKLE, they can afford to be a bit picky and choose whoever’s voice fits best.
And it’s those moments that make War Stories one of the best albums (if not the best album) you’ll hear this year. Astbury’s performances on Burn My Shadow and When Things Explode match everything vocally what UNKLE are capable of musically. And further testament to UNKLE’s expertise in casting, Keys to the Kingdom pulls in the talents of relative no-namer Gavin Clark for what’s possibly the album’s best track.
While War Stories delivers the intensity of any trip-hop or drum & bass record, it’s a little heavy and the relative lull on Persons & Machinery and Twilight is welcome after eight tracks of high-energy dance-fuelled rock. Sounding more like AIR or more recent Massive Attack (not uncharacteristically, 3D guests on Twilight ) the drop in tone and tempo is the perfect breather and tees up the closing bracket perfectly.
