DJ Shadow’s new album, The Less You Know, The Better, has had me stumped. On first listen, it shows great potential. On the second and third, my interest deteriorates, yet then it lifts once again. The veteran of the turntables has faced immense pressure to live up to his previous albums and, in short, this record is just in a whole different – yet no better, or worse – field. Dark and guitar heavy, the record progresses through a series of tracks emanating the more serious side of Josh Davis, aka DJ Shadow.

Opening with a track called "Back To Front (Circular Logic)", the album is off to a good, yet slightly mystifying start, with the sporadic sampling and lack of obvious structure. This differs so distinctly from the nature of the record itself, which is structured down to a tee. The mood is dark, often descending into a level of despair, but interspersed with slow, light melodies along the way.

"Border Crossing" is an obtrusive, guitar-heavy track, while "Stay The Course" is great hip-hop. Between the vocal rock songs, instrumentals "Tedium" and "Enemy Lines" provide a welcome breath of fresh air, though they still pulsate with intense desolation.

I can appreciate the amount of thought DJ Shadow has put into the layout of his tracks, bringing listeners back to where they had been at various stages of the record with subtle reprises. "Sad and Lonely", and the final track "(Not So) Sad and Lonely", are touching highlights, uttering a sense of peaceful, yet hopeful, defeat in the journey of distress, anger, and gloom experienced throughout the album. This distress reaches its pinnacle in "Give Me Back The Night", a track featuring a hostile male voice speaking and screaming over a simple guitar riff.

The album is doubtlessly a work of art, and it should be applauded for that. On the most part, however, it’s not what I’d choose to listen to on every given day.

Review Score: 7.0/10