Underworld - Barbara Barbara We Face A Shining Future [Half-Speed Master]

Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future carries a title lifted straight from Karl Hyde's father's dying words to his mother, and this half-speed mastered edition finally gives Underworld's ninth album the audiophile treatment it earned.

Released in 2016, this was the record where Underworld pulled back from the maximalist club productions that made their name and let something genuinely tender through instead, the title itself proof that grief and hope were sitting right next to each other in the writing process. Karl Hyde and Rick Smith had already spent decades proving electronic music could carry real emotional weight, from Born Slippy's unlikely anthem status onward, but this album leans into that quieter register more directly than almost anything in their catalogue. Cut at half speed onto 180 gram vinyl for this pressing, with a gatefold sleeve carrying the original artwork plus new spine detail, it's built for people who want to actually sit with the record rather than just dance to it.

I Exhale opens with exactly the release its title promises, tension built and let go in one motion. If Rah rides a genuinely gorgeous, unhurried groove, Ova Nova pulses with the kind of hypnotic build Underworld have always done better than almost anyone, and Nylon Strung closes things on something close to a lullaby.

Nearly ten years on, still one of the most quietly moving records in a catalogue mostly known for euphoria. This pressing finally does it justice.