Second Toughest in the Infants by Underworld
Second Toughest in the Infants is the fourth album by Underworld, and the second in their "MK2" line-up with Darren Emerson. With this album, Underworld expanded on their progressive palette, while developing their signature sound of abrasive beats and anthemic melodies. The unusual name of the album derives from a comment made by member Rick Smith's six-year-old nephew, Simon Prosser, when asked on his progress at infant school, the level of schooling attended by four- to seven-year-old children in the United Kingdom. Second Toughest featured the single "Pearl's Girl". The re-issue featured the band's best known single, "Born Slippy .NUXX".
Rock-electronic fusionists Underworld’s 1996 album is a keystone of home-listening techno that helped introduce UK rave sounds to American ears: a high-BPM opus in which quarter-hour songs flit by in the blink of an eye, guitars cascade over rippling drum machines and Karl Hyde unspools stream-of-consciousness rants like a Beat poet perched atop the subwoofer. Whether plunging into hypnotic house (“Rowla”) or the multi-part epics that open the album, it’s progressive in the truest sense of the term—a record that bridged divides, blazed new trails and still sounds fresh, decades later.
