This is DJ Shadow’s best work since his early-aughts heyday. Whatever difficult terrain he had to scale to wrangle this mountain was worth the trip, and suggests even greater ascents in the future.
It won't dethrone Endtroducing... from the pantheon but at last Davis has rediscovered the hidden door to that entrancing night-time world.
The methods have changed but Shadow's unorthodox sense of rhythm remains reassuringly familiar.
The Mountain Will Fall takes a little longer to get into than Shadow's early work, but the result is as rewarding. There's a slow burn to many of the tracks, movements building like waves, and when they crash, it's glorious.
What makes The Mountain Will Fall DJ Shadow’s best album since 2002’s The Private Press is how it fixes the fundamental issue that crippled The Outsider and The Less You Know: It’s blessedly coherent.
Though ‘TMWF’ still lacks the coherence of his debut (with some sagging in the middle) it still stands tonally a much stronger package than his last two releases and is filled with far more highs than lows.
Forget the world records and career cul de sacs, forget the good times and the bad — forget all of the baggage that now comes with a DJ Shadow record. Pretend this is someone's debut, and you'll hear an excellent new album by an ambitious talent.
Mountain won’t bowl you over, but it’s quality work from a quality artist who will forever live in his own shadow.
When the best song on The Mountain Will Fall is the one that sounds like it belongs on a decades-old record, you’re probably better off just sticking to the classics.
This kind of bounce between controlled flow and abrupt mess could be an attempt at keeping the audience on its toes, but it doesn’t show that intentionality.
Far from aiming for some grand unified statement, The Mountain Will Fall feels a lot more like a DJ set—a curated grab bag of ideas that overlap and collide, sometimes in unexpected ways.
The twelve tracks that make up The Mountain Will Fall show that 25 years into his musical career Josh Davis has lost none of his ability to create a sonic patchwork, but neither does it show any desire to stray too far from a tried and tested formula.
It broadly makes for a winning reboot.
What the record lacks in the main part is a sense of urgency and excitement. Too often the songs wash over you, making no serious appeal for your heart or mind.
If only Shadow would just ease off on the tinkering and fidgeting.
There’s a dispiriting aridity about The Mountain Will Fall, which lacks the joyous eclecticism of DJ Shadow’s earlier albums.
The Mountain Will Fall is just slack, with perfunctory ideas waiting impatiently for guest stars to enliven them through association.
‘The Mountain Will Fall’ sounds, at best, like a decent mixtape made by someone with pretty good taste. Thing is, you can probably make one of those yourself.
The most damning part of Shadow’s career is that his first two albums are still more innovative in 2016 than his new music.
DJ Shadow continues to put out electronically tinged music even after his artistic peak in the late 90s, to truly mixed results
There are trap songs on this thing, memphis rap type beats as well, and just songs that are low-key Edm songs too, and only a few times do I feel like any of those styles play to DJ Shadow's strengths, as most of the time this album is either underwhelming, or just straight up annoying
The best song is of course the one featuring Run The Jewels, and the songs ... read more
Was Shadow able to redeem himself on "The Mountain Will Fall" ?
Well, long story short, yes!
Mr. Shadow climbs up the mountain he not-so gracefully fell from on his 2011 LP, fueling a creative flame unseen in his discography so far.
Where cohesion was absent in The Outsider & TLYK, it is here. Where guests ran amuck on The Outsider, they are used sparingly here as well.
Electronics from a not-so distant universe where Flume resides, seems to be the latest direction Shadow ... read more
DJ Shadow continues to put out electronically tinged music even after his artistic peak in the late 90s, to truly mixed results
There are trap songs on this thing, memphis rap type beats as well, and just songs that are low-key Edm songs too, and only a few times do I feel like any of those styles play to DJ Shadow's strengths, as most of the time this album is either underwhelming, or just straight up annoying
The best song is of course the one featuring Run The Jewels, and the songs ... read more
1 | The Mountain Will Fall 4:36 | 58 |
2 | Nobody Speak 3:15 feat. Run the Jewels | 95 |
3 | Three Ralphs 3:36 | 44 |
4 | Bergschrund 4:10 feat. Nils Frahm | 76 |
5 | The Sideshow 3:28 | 56 |
6 | Depth Charge 4:53 | 52 |
7 | Mambo 3:03 | 55 |
8 | Ashes to Oceans 6:16 feat. Matthew Halsall | 61 |
9 | Pitter Patter 3:24 feat. G Jones, Bleep Bloop | 64 |
10 | California 4:29 | 56 |
11 | Ghost Town 3:51 | 56 |
12 | Suicide Pact 4:36 | 54 |
#13 | / | Fopp |
#34 | / | God Is In The TV |
#34 | / | Sound Opinions |
/ | Esquire (UK) |