The Road pt 3 discussion thread

[awaketheunkind]

When can we expect it to come out? Next year?

[jimmyjrg]

I don't think it's been started on yet. Hopefully once he's back on Soho Radio he'll make some announcement.

[Bester]

Now that Leonard has left, isn’t it more likely that Lavelle will want to work on new material with the new collaborator, rather than release older stuff?

[kocomputer]

I'm not sure there is a Part 3. Pretty sure I heard James say somewhere he 'slightly regretted putting absolutely everything out' and making PT2 so long.

Implied (at the time at least) that the cupboard was empty for that era, and any pt3 wasn't written.

As mentioned, if Jack Leonard has moved on, I'd suspect another re-vamp instead.

[awaketheunkind]

I listened to a longer interview (from right after the release of pt 2) recently. James said it was always going to be three parts, and that the last part would have more of a «coming home» theme, a going back to the roots, mix tape sort of thing. It would be very awkward if they didn’t follow that through.

The Road 1 & 2 contains some of the best material released under the UNKLE brand. Days And Nights, The Road, Looking For The Rain, Only You, Feel More With Less, Nowhere To Run, Touch Me and Sick Lullaby are all classics as far as I’m concerned, and part one did really well.

[evil:cat]

Hoping for a revamp, personally. The Road pt.2 is the first Unkle album I've skipped, and I started listening when Berry Meditation came out, so it's been 23 years. He can always toss some remixes out as The Road pt. 3 and call it 'The Road Redux'

[awaketheunkind]

Sept 18, 2020 0:13:35 GMT evil:cat said:

Hoping for a revamp, personally. The Road pt.2 is the first Unkle album I've skipped, and I started listening when Berry Meditation came out, so it's been 23 years.'

Why though? The run from Requiem to The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face is a great trip, with no fillers. Then there’s a dip in quality admittedly, which makes it less consistent than part one, but Days And Nights - Touch Me is one hell of a landing.

My impression is that much of the fanbase are really nostalgic about the Mowax era and are quick to dismiss any new material put out because the sound has shifted, even if PF clearly is one of their weakest releases musically. Remove Rabbit / Lonely Soul and it’s pretty slim, honestly. NNL was a huge step forward.

[Kee]

I’m content with the new material, I like it.

Part III must have some stuff - there is the great ‘On My Knees’, the dub of Ar:Mour. Maybe even ‘Let It Be’ might get a release.

Could be a 2xCD release with Instrumentals maybe

[gilga]

I really like the both albums and can't wait to have part III

[evil:cat]

Sept 18, 2020 10:35:42 GMT awaketheunkind said:

]Why though? The run from Requiem to The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face is a great trip, with no fillers. Then there’s a dip in quality admittedly, which makes it less consistent than part one, but Days And Nights - Touch Me is one hell of a landing.

My impression is that much of the fanbase are really nostalgic about the Mowax era and are quick to dismiss any new material put out because the sound has shifted, even if PF clearly is one of their weakest releases musically. Remove Rabbit / Lonely Soul and it’s pretty slim, honestly. NNL was a huge step forward.

I mean that’s quite a leap. You don’t know what I like, or why. I personally much prefer NNL to PF. As for that album, Lonely Soul is far from my favorite track, and I loathe Rabbit.

In my opinion, the Unkle albums are usually patchy, most of them would make a good EP. I’m much more interested in the ephemera around the albums, typically - I’ll take the Japanese trilogy over most PF tracks, I prefer the Surrender Sounds material to about half of War Stories, and so on. There was so much material released once Pabs was on board its hard to decide where to even start, but I usuaLly end up with a playlist that’s 40% LP, 60% everything else.

Here’s the thing - I don’t think James is progressing in his music much any more. Pabs may have made the production interesting, but once James got stuck in his dad rock rut, things really got quite dull. There was just enough on the Road pt. 1 to hold my interest, especially the dub, hip hop and housey material, but it still had its share of filler. The Road 2 was the first Unkle material that simply failed to make an impression on me.

And Touch Me, while great, is an old release, it was on a GU comp years ago.

And that is why I’d like James to pivot to something new, if he has it in him.

[awaketheunkind]

Fair enough, mate, didn’t mean to misrepresent you! Gutted that anyone can loathe Rabbit though!

Agree that UNKLE albums tend to be a bit inconsistent. I think NNL and The Road part 1 are the only exceptions to this rule. But that’s not because of lack of quality material, most of their albums are VERY long in comparison to the standard album lenght.

You don’t need to reduce it down to an EP. Keep the best 40-45 min of each era instead and all their albums are amazing. Where Did The Night Fall: Another Night Out is 2 hours long, War Stories 1 hour and 10 minues, The Road part two 1 hour and 20 min. Imagine how tight those albums could be with a 40 min run time, with the rest of the material released in another form (B-side compilations / disc 2).

[evil:cat]

Sept 21, 2020 11:15:32 GMT awaketheunkind said:

Fair enough, mate, didn’t mean to misrepresent you! Gutted that anyone can loathe Rabbit though!

Agree that UNKLE albums tend to be a bit inconsistent. I think NNL and The Road part 1 are the only exceptions to this rule. But that’s not because of lack of quality material, most of their albums are VERY long in comparison to the standard album lenght.

You don’t need to reduce it down to an EP. Keep the best 40-45 min of each era instead and all their albums are amazing. Where Did The Night Fall: Another Night Out is 2 hours long, War Stories 1 hour and 10 minues, The Road part two 1 hour and 20 min. Imagine how tight those albums could be with a 40 min run time, with the rest of the material released in another form (B-side compilations / disc 2).

Agreed. Part 1 wasn’t too bad, but I just couldn’t maintain the interest over that length of time with part 3, and it’s even worse when you have a version that’s immediately followed by the instrumentals.

This is not to say others shouldn’t enjoy the album, of course.