Search - Various Artists :: Ultra Chilled 5

Ultra Lazy Effort

Sara Schmitt | New York, NY United States | 06/09/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"A big fan of the Ultra Chilled compilations since their stellar first effort, this latest incarnation is deeply disappointing. Not only does it feature old songs (The Postal Service? Nina Simone?), it includes music that was already used--"Angels" by Wax Poetic and Norah Jones (albeit in a SLIGHTLY different form)--on last year's Ultra.Chilled 04.



Ultra.Chilled used to be a great way to discover up-and-coming artists, or explore some lesser-known names in the genre. By including mainstream artists like Moby (and to some extent, The Postal Service), the series has become about as creative as the NOW compilations.



More importantly, the music collected here is poorly mixed, and just plain unenjoyable. These two discs are the very opposite of what they should be--easy listening. Not surprisingly, the strongest track is from Federico Aubele, who's signed to Eighteenth Street Lounge music, the label created and maintained by the geniuses behind Thievery Corporation. Instead of this album, I'd recommend anything on the ESL label, purveyor of some of the spiffiest and most polished chillout music around."

Not in the same vein as previous UCs

ceestand | New York | 05/10/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I have all of the Ultra Chilled series and while I usually enjoy 80% of the music on those collections, with about half of that entering my permanent rotation, there were only three songs in this version that I could even sit through.



Those were the tracks done by Jon Hopkins, Bent, and Federico Aubele. The rest were not strictly chill, dreadful as music and some were depressing (a few tracks regarding death, including one where the singer is "waiting for suicide" or some such angst).



There is a bit of jazz, electronica, blues, dance and alternative music in Ultra Chilled 05, but little chill and nothing exemplary."

Different, but still great

Sean Farrell | Cape May, NJ | 02/12/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It does feature a somewhat different, more eclectic, variety of songs than featured previously on this series, but it works very well for me. Much like the "Back To Mine" series, this set shows that there is a lot of variety to what can be called chillout. And just like the previous volumes in this series and the "Back To Mine" albums, this one has been a big hit with my friends at cocktail parties."