Description of "Second Toughest in the Infants":

"Juanita: Kiteless/To Dream of Love" is a near seventeen minute trip everything that you would ever want to experience from 'techno' music. A perfect opener.

"Banstyle/Sappy's Curry" is a superb piece of drum and bass. The changes in the upbeat, yet subliminal, melody are so subtle, that because of the trance that you're in, you won't notice. 15+ minutes of techno excellence.

Although "Confusion the Waitress" is my least favorite song on the album, it is still very good. There is a nice, steady bassline that follows Hyde's lyrics of "She said..." throughout for six or seven minutes. It isn't all that bad, but I lose interest after about four minutes and I change it. Worth a listen, though.

"Rowla" is one of my favorite songs on the album. It begins as a simple series of electronic noises that sound "eighties-ish." From this beat, it builds like crazy into a trance-like song that will get you moving... you can't hold back. Hands down, this is one of Underworld's all-time best songs.

"Pearls Girl" is my other favorite. Many people have already heard. It starts as a nice blend of atmospheric sounds and after about a minute, a heart-pounding beat emerges and soon after Hyde will sing beautiful nonsense about 'water' and 'Morocco'. It totals about ten minutes and through that amount of time - you never get bored. It's great, really great.

"Air Towel" is really cool as well. A nice catchy electronic melody resonates throughout for eight minutes. Hyde sings again about beautiful nothingness. Another excellent piece of music.

"Blueski" isn't even three minutes long and it basically consists of layering guitar loops and some people might get bored with it - but I really like it. It's short and sweet. I couldn't listen to it for six minutes or more in a row - but it's pretty good.

"Stagger" is excellent. It's slower and you can't really dance to it - but Hyde sings about mothingness and you can't turn it off. Eventually, the drums will kick in and these beautiful noises will come into the picture and you will be blown away. A nearly perfect closing to a nearly perfect album.

I hope that this review has helped you to decide whether this sounds like the album for you. Even if it isn't - it IS Underworld's best album and it will satisfy you.

Grade: A

Since Dubnobasswithmyheadman, Underworld picked up jungle, breakbeats and Kraut rock in their melange of styles. And when they incorporate jungle into "Barnstyle" and "Pearl's Girl", Underworld makes you rethink the whole d'n'b genre.

But, that's besides the point. A more chilled-out effort and rhythmic record than Dubnobasswithmyheadman, Second Toughest in the Infants significantly tightens their pop composition ideas and infuses amazing, new emotional range into techno.

In fact, on this record, Underworld has made a very, very powerful argument for techno being the new pop music. Granted, many acts (Moby, Orbital, FSOL) have learned to infuse powerful emotion, other acts (Prodigy, Chemical Bros) showed that, yes, techno can rock. But, I really don't believe any dance act has done a better album about loneliness and the need for love and communication as Underworld. Funneled through a druggy sensibility, the dreamy soundscapes and lyrics evoke that painful desire to communicate and connect while in altered states. Elusive yet moving, it also suggests that we are the same in the "real world", and as you are shaking your hips to the beats, it also puts you into thoughts.

Couple that with some of the most inspired guitar sounds I've heard in years, Second Toughest of the Infants really is an essential a rumination on post-urban blues as stuff from Massive Attack or Tricky.

If you drive while listening to Pearl's Girl you will overspeed and go nuts.

What more can really be said? I agree with many here, that this is simply the best techno album ever created. It's tough to call Underworld's music "techno" though. Underworld distinguishes itself, and just simply cannot be molded into a specific genre. Somehow they manage to infuse so many sounds and styles into their music, it becomes truly unique. Techno, trance, electronica, pop, punk, it's all here.

I was introduced to this album about 7 years ago. It was my first Underworld experience. To this day I get chills when I listen. If you can't blast it, listen to this album with headphones to really pick out the detail. This is timeless piece of music.

where do is start? just one year after Underworld released the insatiable dancehall crasher "Born Slippy", they release an album of unmatched skill, variety, and expressiveness. like a previous reviewer stated, it seems to express the need for love and communication. there are many lyrics, but you find yourself not listening to the individual words, but rather the feel or message it gives off (example on "Juanita/Kiteless/To Dream Of Love" where a high pitched voice recites "and green and blue and gray and silver and gray and white and green and blue..."). like other reviewers have said, the lyrics are used more as another instrument than it's own seperate entity. the album is cold but sensuous and beautiful but dirty. matching the utter complexity of this album would be near impossible.

the task Underworld faced when they were playing clubs in the early 90's was that, even though they wanted to keep the whole cheesy rock downbeat vibe, nobody wanted to have a guitarist on stage pounding out chords. so Underworld crafted those electric guitar sounds into rhythms and beats and made it sound like rock even though there was little guitar involved. in 1994 they released "Dubnobasswithmyheadman" which was a perfect example of this skill. Over the course of only two years, they played with and matured their style to the level where it is on this album. While it's still mainly downbeat and dub sounding, they picked up synthesizer sequences and drum breaks which some even consider jungle. They also finally reached the level of Epic, with the 16+ minute "Juanita/Kiteless/To Dream Of Love". This album is near perfect, bringing out full fledged emotions over the hazy and ambient soundscapes of desolance. while "Dubnobasswithmyheadman" had the 3:30AM dirty apartment feel, "Second Toughest In The Infants" has the kind of secluded narcotic aura. There is also no part of this album that sounds calculated. Samples are often slightly off cue (but never sloppy) and phasing to reflect the value of expressiveness over absolute beatfulness. You can also lay back and let this album be your narcotic (you really will feel high) But the beats will still make you bob your head and maybe even dance. Almost every element of this album can be looked at from two sides of the spectrum. Explaning this album in words is difficult.

I normally wouldn't talk about every track, only the highlights, but every track is a highlight on this album. Seriously. "Juanita/Kiteless/To Dream Of Love" is the opener. Like the name may suggest, there's about three layers to this song which complement each other nicely. Piano, guitar, and vocoded lyrics throw themselves around the track in an improvised manner. It is very cool when Karl says "listen to the sound of barb wire hanging" and then it hits into a harsh break. It is very epic and complex. It moves on towards "Banstyle/Sappy's Curry". The vocals are at a lower volume on this track and fit perfectly over the acoustic guitar which is brought fourth later in the track. The first two tracks combined are over 30mins. and take up almost half of the album. The third track takes the route of pure downbeat, reciting lyrics dealing with bizarre angles on telephones (you need to hear it to understand). This is on of the prime tracks if you want to experiment with music as a drug. "Rowla" is an example of the hardness and edge of this album, but it reaches the peak of energy on "Pearl's Girl". It starts very slow and ambient but quicly picks up the pace and hard drum beats and synth meet up with charging vocals. It makes you go hyper and insane and start jumping around and stuff. "Air Towel" is the most "Dubnobasswithmyheadman" sounding track on the album, very slow and vocal. "Blueski" is guitar over scattered reality sounds, making for a haunting experience. "Stagger" is worth the price of the CD alone, incorporating full on vocals of bleeding expressiveness with some of the most hazy real-sounding atmospheres you'll ever hear. I swear I love this song. It almost makes me cry everytime I hear it. The album closes and you almost forget where you are. You are staring out your window thinking about existence and purpose, which this album is prone to make you do. This album is the pure defintion of a "keeper" and it's one of the best cd's i've been privileged to listen to.