By Jack Daniel Betz

From a critical standpoint, this my favorite DJ Shadow album thus far. “Entroducing..” has now of course reached legendary status in the music world and it was a strong release for sure but there were moments on the record that felt very meandering, probably due to some of the track lengths.

On “The Less. . .” Shadow is able to pump out a number of shorter, more self-contained tracks that won’t draw from anyone the criticism of being rambling or pretentious. This is a comforting sign of maturation even now, from someone as skilled as Davis who could easily just rest on his laurels stylistically as he sort of did on his previous “The Outsider”. That album had so many cameos it was difficult to distinguish them from his actual work.

There’s a great deal of variety here. “Border Crossing” which features chugging guitars is followed by old school hip-hop “Stay the Course”. Tom Vek makes an appearance on the album too, singing like he’s a goth Brandon Flowers. While there’s a fair amount of collaborators here it doesn’t feel like Davis leans on them quiet as heavily as before.

“Give Me Back the Nights” is perhaps the most interesting track which includes the maudlin ramblings of what sounds like a strung out drifter. “The Less You Know, The Better” is certainly much more original than his last release.

Grade:B+