War Stories (album)

Last updated

War Stories
Unkle War Stories.jpg
Studio album by
Unkle
Released20 June 2007 (2007-06-20)
RecordedAutumn 2005 – Winter 2006 in Joshua Tree, Los Angeles, and London
Genre
Length70:44
Label Surrender All
Producer
Unkle chronology
Self Defence: Never, Never, Land Reconstructed and Bonus Beats
(2006)		War Stories
(2007)		 More Stories
(2008)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 61/100 [1]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [2]
Alternative Press Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [3]
The A.V. Club B+ [4]
Blender Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [5]
The Guardian Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [6]
Hot Press Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [7]
Los Angeles Times Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [8]
musicOMH Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [9]
Pitchfork 4.5/10 [10]
PopMatters 5/10 [11]

War Stories is the third studio album by English electronic music group UNKLE. The album was released in Japan on 20 June 2007, UK and Europe on 2 July 2007, and in North America on 24 July. War Stories debuted at number 58 in Australia. The cover art was designed by 3D of Massive Attack.

Contents

Release

The album was promoted by three singles: "Burn My Shadow", "Hold My Hand" and "Restless". The video for "Burn My Shadow" featured the actor Goran Visnjic and was directed by Miguel Sapochnik. The track "Chemistry" is used as the instrumental track for "Hello/Goodbye (Uncool)" by Lupe Fiasco from his 2007 album Lupe Fiasco's The Cool . Lupe Fiasco chose War Stories as his number 1 album of the year as posted to a video on Myspace. The track "Mayday" was featured in the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV on the radio station Radio Broker. The track "When Things Explode" was used during the climax of the episode "Number Crunch" (Season 1, episode 10) from the TV series Person of Interest. [12]

The most popular song from the album, "Burn My Shadow", was used during the climax of the movie Repo Men . It was also featured in an Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood trailer, [13] the trailer for the 2009 video game Fuel , and in the episode "Flesh and Blood" (Season 1, episode 19) of the TV series Person of Interest. [14] The song "Chemistry" was featured in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood DLC "The Da Vinci Disappearance", a trailer for series six of Spooks and the documentary film Countdown to Zero (2010). "Hold My Hand" was featured briefly in the 2008 film 21. [15] "Restless" has featured in multiple video games, most notably Electronic Arts' "Need For Speed: ProStreet" in 2007, as well as Codemasters' "Colin McRae: DiRT 2" in 2009, which also featured a remix of the song by Livio and Roby. "Lawless" was also featured in a 2009 Jagermeister ad.

Track listing

  1. "Intro" – 0:22
  2. "Chemistry" – 3:22
  3. "Hold My Hand" – 4:59
  4. "Restless" (featuring Josh Homme) – 5:04
  5. "Keys to the Kingdom" (featuring Gavin Clark) – 4:45
  6. "Price You Pay" – 6:22
  7. "Burn My Shadow" (featuring Ian Astbury) – 4:57
  8. "Mayday" (featuring The Duke Spirit) – 3:18
  9. "Persons & Machinery" (featuring Autolux) – 6:04
  10. "Twilight" (featuring 3D) – 5:21
  11. "Morning Rage" – 5:15
  12. "Lawless" – 2:36
  13. "Broken" (featuring Gavin Clark) – 4:42
  14. "When Things Explode" (featuring Ian Astbury) – 5:32
  15. "Buying a Lie" (featuring Lee Gorton) (Australian and Japanese bonus track plus in the UK on Indie Limited Edition) – 4:25
  16. "Mistress" (featuring Alice Temple) (Australian and Japanese bonus track plus in the UK on Indie Limited Edition) – 3:48
  17. "Tired of Sleeping" (hidden track) – 6:26

Disc two of the limited edition (SURR005CDXX)

  1. "Hold My Hand" (Instrumental) – 4:59
  2. "Restless" (Instrumental) – 5:04
  3. "Keys to the Kingdom" (Instrumental) – 4:45
  4. "Price You Pay" (Instrumental) – 6:22
  5. "Burn My Shadow" (Instrumental) – 4:57
  6. "Mayday" (Instrumental) – 3:18
  7. "Persons & Machinery" (Instrumental) – 6:04
  8. "Twilight" (Instrumental) – 5:21
  9. "Morning Rage" (Instrumental) – 5:15
  10. "Lawless" (Instrumental) – 2:36
  11. "Broken" (Instrumental) – 4:42
  12. "When Things Explode" (Instrumental) – 5:32

Exclusive pre-order bonus CD

  1. Autolux, "Turnstile Blues (UNKLE Surrender Sounds Session 4)"
  2. UNKLE, "A Wash of Black" (Instrumental UNKLE Remix of Muse's "Supermassive Black Hole")
  3. Black Mountain, "No Hits (UNKLE Surrender Sounds Session 3)"
  4. UNKLE, "Burn My Shadow (Jesse Somfay Mix)"

Charts

Chart (2007)Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA) [16] 58
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [17] 50
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [18] 99
French Albums (SNEP) [19] 84
Irish Albums (IRMA) [20] 66
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [21] 58
UK Albums (OCC) [22] 58

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References

  1. ↑ "War Stories by UNKLE". Metacritic.com.
  2. ↑ "War Stories - UNKLE | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic . Retrieved 10 December 2021.
  3. ↑ Teffer, Ashley. "Unkle - War Stories". Alternative Press . Retrieved 29 October 2007.
  4. ↑ "UNKLE: War Stories". The A.V. Club.
  5. ↑ A turgid modern, progressive rock with superficial hip-hop sheen. [August 2007, p.119]
  6. ↑ "CD: Unkle, War Stories". The Guardian . 16 June 2007.
  7. ↑ Nolan, Paul. "War Stories". Hotpress.com.
  8. ↑ "UNKLE tells some dark 'Stories' - Los Angeles Times". articles.latimes.com. Archived from the original on 7 December 2009. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  9. ↑ "UNKLE - War Stories | Album Reviews". 1 July 2007.
  10. ↑ "UNKLE: War Stories". Pitchfork.com.
  11. ↑ O'Neil, Tim. "UNKLE - War Stories". PopMatters . Retrieved 1 August 2007.
  12. ↑ "Music from Person of Interest S1E10". TuneFind. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  13. ↑ "Assassin's Creed Brotherhood - Trailer - Unkle - Burn my shadow away [Europe]". YouTube . 14 September 2010. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  14. ↑ "Music from Person of Interest S1E19". TuneFind. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  15. ↑ Brown, Marisa. "21 [Original Soundtrack]". AllMusic . Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  16. ↑ "The ARIA Report: Week Commencing 16 July 2007" (PDF). ARIA. Australian Recording Industry Association. Australian Web Archive (906). 16 July 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 July 2007. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  17. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Unkle – War Stories" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  18. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Unkle – War Stories" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  19. ↑ "Lescharts.com – Unkle – War Stories". Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  20. ↑ "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 28, 2007". Chart-Track. IRMA. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  21. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Unkle – War Stories". Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  22. ↑ "Unkle | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
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