One Nation (album)
| One Nation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 14 March 2011 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 44:14 | |||
| Label | Hippos in Tanks | |||
| Hype Williams chronology | ||||
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One Nation is an album by British musical duo Hype Williams. It was released on 14 March 2011 through Hippos in Tanks record label.[3]
Background and composition
[edit]The Guardian describes the record's sound as “all woozy basslines, stuttering tempos and glacial washes of synths that feel like a hollowing out of several narrative strands in pop history."[4] Self-Titled Mag called One Nation "as blunted as hypnagogic pop gets."[1] Pitchfork critic Paul Thompson wrote: "At its best, One Nation sounds like a beat tape left to crackle for a decade in somebody's garage. [...] a spacious, hazy, hip-hop-influenced electronic dub.[2] It has been compared to the works of Daniel Lopatin, Ariel Pink, and Boards of Canada, and has been characterized as drawing influences from G-funk, synthpop, horror movie soundtracks,[2] classic R&B and Chicago house.[5] The album also features spoken word fragments[6]
Critical reception
[edit]| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 70/100[7] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Drowned in Sound | 7/10[5] |
| The Guardian |   [4] |
| NME | [8] |
| Pitchfork | 6.4/10[2] |
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 70, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 8 reviews.[7] Drowned in Sound critic Noel Gardner described Hype Williams as "a brace of obnoxious, always-switched-on jokers whose music has actual depth and beauty, as much as their M.O. might try to disguise it." Gardner further commented: "If you had to single out something as being symbolic of 2011, you could do a lot worse than this album."[5] The Guardian's Caspar Llewellyn Smith stated: "And while, for some, two spoken-word tracks – Untitled and Untitled (And Your Batty's So Round) – may bring to mind nothing so much as Baz Luhrmann's Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen), others may find it all strangely addictive."[4] Tim Chester of NME thought that the record lacks cohesion and "the songwriting spark of Ariel Pink", eventually writing: "Like making a time capsule and filling it full of junk, '‘One Nation''s oddball ephemera might seem more intriguing to good citizens of the future than it does to us."[8]
Track listing
[edit]- "Ital" – 3:14
- "Untitled" – 2:28
- "William, Shotgun Sprayer" – 4:30
- "Businessline" – 3:37
- "Warlord" – 4:57
- "Dragon Stout" – 1:04
- "Homegrown" – 1:41
- "Your Girl Smells Chung When She Wears Dior" – 2:12
- "Unfaithful" – 1:40
- "Mitsubishi" – 7:48
- "Jah" – 3:17
- "Break4love" – 3:04
- "Untitled (And Your Batty's So Round)" – 4:42
References
[edit]- ^ a b "COMING SOON: HYPE WILLIAMS, 'ONE NATION'". Self-Titled Mag. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
- ^ a b c d Thompson, Paul (16 March 2011). "Album review: Hype Williams – One Nation". Pitchfork. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ^ "Hype Williams – One Nation". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ^ a b c Smith, Caspar Llewellyn (24 March 2011). "Hype Williams: One Nation – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ^ a b c Gardner, Noel (13 April 2011). "Hype Williams – One Nation". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 4 February 2017. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ^ "Hype Williams – One Nation review". Mojo: 110. May 2011.
- ^ a b "Hype Williams – One Nation". Metacritic. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
- ^ a b Chester, Tim (6 April 2011). "Album Review: Hype Williams – One Nation (Hippos In Tanks)". NME. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
External links
[edit]- One Nation at Discogs (list of releases)
