Timing is as crucial to the release of a retrospective as it is to comedy. That’s why this celebration of a career feels more like a wake. Underworld’s marriage of Karl Hyde’s poetic vocals to Darren Emerson and Rick Smith’s gliding electronica tugged the British dance boom of the 1990s towards a left-field-conclusion. But with the genre withering, it’s perverse to release a Best Of now. One day, a new generation will plunder their back catalogue, but not now. As with The Chemical Brothers’ recent compilation, the crash is too recent to celebrate the journey.
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