Us and Them (Godflesh album)
Us and Them is the fifth studio album by English band Godflesh. It was released on May 17, 1999, in Europe, and on June 8, 1999, in North America, on Earache Records. As with Love and Hate in Dub, the album is influenced by breakbeats, drum and bass, oldschool jungle, trip hop and hip hop. Frontman Justin Broadrick later admitted that he "hated" the album as it was the expression of an "identity crisis".[1]
Composition and music
Us and Them features a sound more akin to Songs of Love and Hate's remix album, Love and Hate in Dub (1996), driven percussively and relying on thumping drum and bass and hip hop rhythms.[2] AllMusic critic John Bush, who described the record as "heavy grindcore with drum machines," wrote: "From the drum'n'bass onslaught of the opener though, it's clear that Us and Them is more indebted to electronics and pure noise. The razor-sharp guitars and sweeping, guttural vocals that fans have come to expect from any Godflesh record are still intact, but the pair extend the sound with avenues rarely heard on their proper albums."[3] Ian Christe of CMJ thought that Rather than the lurching stomp of 1992's Pure, Us and Them calls on trip-hop and slowed jungle.[4] Decibel's Kevin Stewart-Panko also thought that the track "Internal" "acts as an elegiac, post-punk, shoegazing harbinger of what was to come on Hymns and the Jesu project."[5]
Critical reception
AllMusic's John Bush wrote: "In a sense though, Us and Them is the same kind of record Godflesh has been making since its inception... It's just that the duo has pushed the envelope much farther than any of its contemporaries."[3] Chronicles of Chaos critic Paul Schwarz thought: "At 64 minutes, Us and Them is a lot to take in, especially in one sitting, and I find it a little bit of a struggle as an album, but it does have some great tracks and creates a blanket of depressive, atmospheric industrial sound which is hard to throw off."[2] Ian Christe of CMJstated: "Start to finish, this is a beautiful , moody and sincere record from a band most thought had milked its last cow."[4]
Track listing
|
| 1. | "I, Me, Mine" | 5:20 |
| 2. | "Us and Them" | 5:56 |
| 3. | "Endgames" | 4:56 |
| 4. | "Witchhunt" | 5:11 |
| 5. | "Whose Truth Is Your Truth" | 5:03 |
| 6. | "Defiled" | 5:29 |
| 7. | "Bittersweet" | 4:34 |
| 8. | "Nail" | 4:09 |
| 9. | "Descent" | 5:38 |
| 10. | "Control Freak" | 5:37 |
| 11. | "The Internal" | 6:33 |
| 12. | "Live to Lose" | 5:39 |
| Total length: | 64:05 |
Personnel
References
- ↑ Bromley, Adrian (14 January 2002). "Hymns of Progression". Chronicles of Chaos. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
What was going on at the time of my career with Godflesh was an identity crisis. I'd spent a lot of time making that album and it almost sounded like it was a remix of a remix album. There were so many changes going on and it was just a regurgitation of what I had done before. It was really fucking tiresome. I did a lot of that album by myself, in a very hermit-like state of mind. I was in a technologically obsessed state of mind and I lost sight of what Godflesh should be. The end result was something very eclectic and ambitious that didn't even sound like a Godflesh album. That album is the sound of an identity crisis and we did it in public. I am glad it wasn't promoted well.
- 1 2 3 Schwarz, Paul. "Us and Them - Godflesh". Chronicles of Chaos. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
- 1 2 3 Bush, John. "Us and Them - Godflesh". Allmusic. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
- 1 2 Christe, Ian (October 1999). "Godflesh - Us and Them". CMJ. 74: 59. ISSN 1074-6978.
- ↑ Stewart-Panko, Kevin (14 July 2016). "Justify Your Shitty Taste: Godflesh - Us and Them". Decibel. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
External links
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