Less You Know the Better

DJ Shadow | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 4, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 2011
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Roc-A-Fella
• ASIN: B0050CK5N0
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,630 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Back To Front (Circular Logic)

2. Border Crossing

3. Stay The Course

4. I've Been Trying Travelogue

5. Sad And Lonely

6. Warning Call

7. Tedium

8. Enemy Lines

9. Going Nowhere

10. Redeemed

11. Run For Your Life

12. Give Me Back The Nights

13. I Gotta Rokk

14. Scale It Back

15. Circular Logic (Front To Back)

16. (Not So) Sad And Lonely [Bonus Track]

Editorial Reviews

2011 release, the fourth proper album from the producer, DJ and turntablist. The Less You Know The Better is his first studio effort since 2006's The Outsider. The album features guest appearances from Talib Kweli, De La Soul's Posdnuos, Little Dragon's Yukimi Nagano, Afrikan Boy and Tom Vek.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Slow it down shadow- this is your destiny!!!! November 6, 2011

By Elan Bodwick VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

Such a shame that shadow continues to stray from what he truly masters- which whether he likes it or not is his mastery of the downtempo vibe. Whenever he strays from this template often the result is like bad unkle outakes- inept uptempo throwaway rock and electronic songs that sound like the rest of the industry. Every slower paced song on here is great- like ive been trying- scale back- sad and lonely and a few other instrumental numbers- etc! Then the bad metal riffs kick in with the frantic drum and bass or whatever new name they call the same beats these days featuring some trendy singer that unkle has driven into the ground! Shadow is still haunted by the quality of endtroducing- ironically he has shown he can match or even improve upon that masterpiece! Im all for change and experimenting but when the change is bad ill take the safe quality route every time. We get it shadow- you like all kinds of music- but the truth is you do one thing very well- perhaps better than anyone- i would hope he would come to terms with what he excels at!

In the end with track skipping we have a very good half album- the other half he should have sent to Unkle who suffer from the same dilemna- denying their strengths! Most artists mellow out with bad results as they get older- in shadows case this fate would be a good thing

21 of 28 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent October 6, 2011

By Bill Your 'Free Form FM Print DJ TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you were disappointed, or completely stunned, by DJ Shadow's last issue, 2006's Outsider, you're not alone. There are two camps: those wanting another experimental, Steve Reich imbued Endtroducing, or those wanting Shadow to blow you away with something different--extraordinary surprise. Outsider fit half two of the bill: an album that seemed like less of an album and more of a compilation of experiments: hip hop, soul, grinding rock, about twenty great everythings but the kitchen sink and common thread. I am still digging for new sounds and scratching my head at once.

With Shadow, you are either one of those people you bought Entroducing in '96, and there it sits with dusted case copies of Nevermind and Ten or you are in deep. Real deep! Shadow owns at last count 60,000 LPs, and spends years digging through and layering those to give us what may be the most textured, full-sounded music currently out there. So far on The Less You Know, I've found a loop from Miles Davis Live-Evil, and the thought that Shadow and I share at least one semi-cult classic album gives me the rush all-a-goose-pimply.

If you are serious about your music, as a collector and a listener, Shadow both has the record collection of your dreams, and provides you with years of trying to find more sounds in each densely packed second of his albums; I am not even considering his EPs, check out the underknown Funky Skunk, and collaborations with Cut Chemist. He is one of the few true serious old school music dudes in a world where digital generic production is all too plenty and serious albums, and buying of them in the hardcore collecting sense, are endangered species. He is a THE collector, high art star, and serious composer; a guy like us crate diggers, but with infinite talent and album collecting resources. An idle for recordheads to aspire to like teen spirit girls worship Justin Biber.

And so I waited for The Less You Know with bated CD laser, wanting to hear the music and continuing to worship the mystique.

How is it? Well, you are definitely not going to have an Outsider, cohesion problem. The Less You Know is Shadow working with a cocktail of hip-hop, drum and bass and his own progressive form of club music. Guitars, drums, electronically laced beats: this music probably had more tracks on the demos Shadow may have made than most dance or rap does on the finished product.

Does it work. Well, if you are a superficial listener and don't like these styles, you should probably be elsewhere anyway. Genre is never the point with Shadow, as even at his most obtuse, he transcends casual listening with sheer density and depth of sound. But even mild sympathy with Shadow will have you peeling the never ending onion with loving consideration, looking for new sounds, individually, and the whole album as one piece, which will no doubt be drawing us converts into consideration and reconsideration for years to come.

I can't say I love it, yet, but as I unblanket this new born over the next few months, I am sure i will like it, throw it aside from numb overplay, and then think it is the greatest thing since the The Beatles (The White Album), going through these stages time and again.

And that alone should be enough to show you the stature of DJ Shadow in serious music

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Buyer beware October 4, 2011

By Not Your Concern

Format:MP3 Music|Amazon Verified Purchase

Update 10-10-11

Seems the corrupt MP3 files have been corrected. All is well.

Great album! Sound-wise, I feel this one sits somewhere just between Private Press and Pre-Emptive Strike.