Burial – Untrue (2007)

March 18, 2022

I’m not the biggest club guy, Londoner or even electronic music enthusiast (although that does grow over time, judging by the burgeoning ‘electronic’ tag here on this site), but Untrue has to be one of the greatest albums ever made, all the same. I’ve read many stories about its inception, but the general one I like the most is that Burial is trying to pay tribute to the sounds and atmospheres he grew up in. That makes a lot of sense when you realise a lot of this album sounds like you are standing outside a nightclub in the rain, waiting for the night bus or stumbling hazily to a Maccy’s, or flashing back to various fragments of the night’s debauchery.

However, this is one problem with this analysis, as fitting as it is for Burial’s fragmented and echoic compositions. It simply does not do Untrue justice. Untrue is so much more. It was Burial’s EP Truant / Rough Sleeper that really got under my skin, but Untrue is much the same in that it is a personal experience for everyone who listens to it. So much emotion, weight and feeling is conjured in this set of tracks that its not even funny. Anyone, musician or listener, from any genre, should give Burial a shot at least once. What we have here in this artist is pure, unfiltered magic. Untrue is a fantastic document of that, and it should be cherished forever.