Are You Earthed

Appliance | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 25, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mute U.S.
• ASIN: B00006IQKA
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #543,856 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Tuesday Is Nearly Over

2. Go Native

3. Fruits Of The Sea

4. Mountains I

5. As Far As I Can See

6. Violins

7. The Blue Rider

8. 88

9. Boats

10. Mountains II

11. Are You Earthed?

Editorial Reviews

From URB Magazine

(Mute) Appliance has been known to disassemble existing equipment and combine it with other parts to create unique instruments. Neat. Where these lie on their third album in terms of distinguishably exciting sounds is the problem. Are You Earthed? is not a very interesting album for a number of reasons. Its downtempo, come-down feel is immediately offset by stupid lyrics like "Come live on the mountain with me/Take a while to get there/But we’ll get there." Choruses repeat ad nauseum as if they were asking something profound. Instrumentals like the reverb-tinged "The Blue Rider" sound completely arresting in this environment. With all the uncharted musical territory left to explore, some bands still choose to create a decent pop-rock record. This is not one of those. Most of the tracks here hit the four-minute mark but don’t have much to offer when it comes to hooks or clever lyricism, which are two of the things that could distinguish a short pop song from bubbly nonsense.

Tony Bogdanovski

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Elegant Dystopia, April 11, 2003

By 

WrtnWrd "Hankman" (Northridge, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Are You Earthed (Audio CD)

On their third full length-release Are You Earthed?, the Kraut-rock industrialism of Appliance is grounded by Michael Parker's loping, graceful bass lines. In keeping with Parker's lyricism, the band itself - including guitarist/vocalist James Brooks and drummer David Ireland - are not only earthbound, but internal. On Manual and Imperial Metric, they were a propulsive, compelling, dark and ultimately distancing unit. They were concerned with technology on a planetary scale. Here, they tackle both the liberating and alienating effects of information overload, but it's the individual toll that concerns them now. As a result, the music is both creepier and warmer. Imagine the elegant dystopia of Depeche Mode's "Waiting for the Night" crossed with the clinical dispassion of Wire's isolating electronica and you're halfway there.