Customer Reviews

Londinium

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is quite simply, the best trip-hop record I have ever heard. It ties (or even surpasses) Portishead's "Dummy". The string arrangements, the introspective rapping (never annoying, just a great flow... GREAT flow), the female singing, the BEATS.... my god, the BEATS are PERFECT! It's a shame Archive didn't continue to create such beautiful masterpieces such as this. The album that followed, 1999's Take My Head, is horrible. The rap is gone, the female singer is different, and the beats and songs borderline on cheesy mainstream pop rather than dark, rainy-day downtempo. And I've heard tracks from the new album, You All Look The Same To Me, and unfortunately, once again the lineup has changed, and now a guy is singing (still no hip-hop). It's good but it's nowhere near as amazing as Londinium. The price tag may be high on this album, but trust me, it is worth every penny and then some. Darius and Danny: please PLEASE go back to your roots! The die-hard fans out there miss this perfect, beautiful, amazing, thought-provoking, and above all, INSPIRING album. To all those who have not heard it yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR????!!!

Sorry but this review will be short. This album's cd or the minidisc copy I made of it, goes with me almost everywhere I go.
It lives up to to all the hype it gets. Beautiful female vocals ,smooth british rapping and perfectly produced beats. I couldn't ask for anything more in a record. Everyone who I have played this album for loves it (even my mother.) Yeah stop reading and Buy It Now!!! By the way It is extremely hard to find in record stores so once again Buy It Now!!!

Archive's Londinium is a very urban record, capturing the atmosphere of London city life like never before. Sparse, beautiful, chilling, sorrowful, a wonderful vision of isolation in a modern world. Especially brought to life by those wonderful analogue synth sounds.

Unforunately, the follow-up album "Take My Head" was vastly inferior, featuring only two good songs :(

I got this Album by coincidence, and i'm so happy about it. This is by far one of the best albums i've ever heard. It kind of elevates my mind, increases my consciousness. I love taking the time to listen to it as loud as possible to let the bass, the melodies, the female (godly) voice and the glorious rap (i'm not a rap fan, i dislike rap normally) flow into my ears. I really enjoy it. Does any Archive-Fan know their Homepage, or an Archive-devoted? Please let me know (silence@eurochat.ch). thanks, georg

Possibly one of the most underrated Trip Hop albums, coming out around the release of Sneeker Pimps and Morcheeba's debut albums this one was truly overlooked, combining aspects of both the fore mentioned albums(and then some), Londinium takes you through a soundscape exploration of a rather eclectic kind, theres quite a few well crafted instrumentals all reasonably chilled, but with more experimentalism than your average Trip Hop album,however the quality never suffers. Having both a female and a male singer sets them apart from the usual Trip Hop formula, the cool flowing raps add an extra dimension and edge to the whole ablum, an absolute must for Trip Hop and Electronia fans.Well above average.

i've never posted a review before. but this album, which i've had for more than a couple of years now is just so incredible. it's still my favorite album after all this time. it's almost perfect.

i'm critical .... it's rare for me to like even 50% of the songs on the albums by my favorite artists. but this one--lordie lordie... how can it be possible that no one knows this album? how is it possible that people know so much crap that's out there and not know this?! like others have said, anyone who hears this album loves it. so who's the fool who handled the marketing on this thing? why's it only available as an import and not everywhere?!

It's a real shame when such a work of beauty does not receive the accolades that it deserves. Archive's Londinium is without question the most instrumental album to come out of the 1990's. It is unmatched in its emotive and pristine brilliance. It can evoke so much out of the listner, like nothing else can......the strings....the mind-numbing climaxes......the beats......nothing compares.

Standouts......the title track "Londinium" and the stark and dreamy "Nothing Else". Possibly the 2 greatest songs you haven't heard. Give it a listen, you will be taken to another world.

Not enough good things can be written about this album. The haunting melodies intertwine with incredibly well-structured beats, and it is all set off with the beautiful voice of a female lead singer. On about half of the tracks, an MC drops well-formed and intelligent rhymes to make this band (in my opinion) surpass even the heroic efforts put forth by trip-hop greats as Massive Attack. This is well worth the import price; fans of any sort of chill-out music (triphop, ambient, etc) will not only not be disappointed, they'll be ecstatic.

Almost too good to express in words,Londinium is without a doubt the best CD I've ever bought...It's style is like anything else, an eclectic mix of classical, rap and contempory..

Simply Beautiful...

I've listened to the CD about a 1000 times and I still don't feel sick of it! I've been looking for other records by Archive but all results negative! So I just keep this one along the best 5 albums I've ever had and hope other artists will try to continue in this kind of music. (When you haven't heard the CD yet, take your time, just sit down, darken your room and crank the volume up, enjoy...!)