New Energy (album)

Hebden produced 45 tracks over the course of ten months, and fourteen of them appear on New Energy.[2] He initially planned it to be a minimal ambient LP, but "it came out more complex then planned," he explained.[2] The album, apart from "Alap," "Two Thousand and Seventeen," "LA Trance," and "Daughter," departs from the glitch-y downtempo sound from his previous releases for a very uptempo, polished, listener-friendly style that's still "reflective enough to be more appropriate for home listening than club play," analyzed reviewer Paul Simpson.[3] Despite this, elements from past Four Tet albums come together on New Energy.[4] As writer Andy Beta stated, it has "the low-key warmth of 2003’s Rounds, the free jazz at the heart of 2005’s Everything Ecstatic, the friendly thump of 2012’s Pink," and "the sprawl of 2015’s Morning/Evening."[4]

New Energy takes on a wide variety of styles, such as minimal bass music ("Planet"),[4] ambient music ("Gentle Soul," "You Are Loved," and "Alap"),[4][3][5] neo-classical music ("10 Midi"),[4][6] deep house ("SW9 9SL"),[6] new age dance music ("Lush"),[4] Indian classical music ("Alap"),[4] trip-hop ("Daughter"),[5] and UK garage ("SW9 9SL").[5] Described by some reviewers as the album's only club track,[3][4] "SW9 9SL" is named after the post code of Brixton Academy where Hebden performed at night-time events that were purely about community and people" which he felt was "important."[7] The variety also extends to the record's palette of sounds, which consists of virtual instrument replications of acoustic instruments originating from all across the world.[8] Daniel Cole of XLR8R suggested this was an "extension of his Spotify playlist of music from Muslim countries he made earlier this year—in retaliation to the Trump travel ban."[8]

Four tracks from New Energy were issued before the full album was released: "Two Thousand and Seventeen" on 4 July 2017,[1] "Planet" on 2 August 2017,[9][10] "SW9 9SL" on 25 August 2017,[11] and "Scientists" on 13 September 2017.[12] Text Records officially issued New Energy on 19 September 2017.[13] Hebden contributed the first 1,000 vinyl and CD copies of New Energy to the online shop of the charitable organization Oxfam.[14]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.6/10[15]
Metacritic	86/100[16]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Exclaim!	9/10[6]
Financial Times	[17]
Louder Than War	9/10[18]
The Observer	[19]
Pitchfork	8.0/10[4]
Q	[20]
Resident Advisor	3.5/5[5]
Uncut	8/10[21]
XLR8R	8.5/10[8]

New Energy received a five-star review from Q magazine, who called it Four Tet's best album and a "career-defining masterpiece."[20] Simpson claimed that the LP "still maintains the creativity and unpredictability that have always made [Four Tet's] work stand out."[3] Exclaim! stated that with New Energy, "the English producer's proclivity for irresistible hooks is delivered through a palette of strummed strings, wistful timbres and delectable breaks that make for a satisfying and evocative body of work."[6] Spin magazine's Andy Cush stated the album has "a desire to remove a listener from their surroundings and bring them someplace higher, no matter the means."[22]

Cole stated that it "finally feels like an album that is truly unique, and characteristic of Hebden’s style."[8] His main praise was its use of global instruments, reasoning that it "create[s] an open expanse, allowing room to breathe within the tracks, and a sense of stronger composure and musicianship on behalf of the producer."[8] The culturally-tinged instrumentation was also honored in a Dancing Astronaut review: "New Energy's serpentine instrumentation is a circuitous avoidance of sonic similarity, meditative and intricately-devised. Its tracks exude a panoptic enigma that is regenerated upon each new listen."[23] As Uncut explained the charm of the album, "Hebden's skill is to weave such ethnographic curiosities into the fabric of his own luminous electronica without it feeling like a dry curatorial exercise."[21]

Andrew Ryce honored it as "one of Hebden's most intimate and personal albums, with all the idiosyncrasies that come with that."[5] He also noted that "its tranquil spirit and moments of hope make it almost transgressive at a time when other artists are channeling 2017's climate of fear and frustration into dark, angry sounds."[5] Beta favorably reviewed the album, but also wrote that "at times, [Hebden's] attention to textures comes at the cost of exploring new terrain."[4] Some reviews of the LP criticized the album's overly-calm, unsurprising style.[5][19] However, The 405 praised the relaxed aspect of the album, reasoning that while it has its "inborn drawbacks" and the entire record "is a consolidation rather than a progression," "its palate is so substantial and nourishing that such slight ambition is peripheral."[24] Spectrum Culture panned the record's simple structure, reasoning that it continues the aspect of Four Tet's discography where each release decreases the project's "scale, size and ambition."[25]

All tracks written and produced by Kieran Hebden.[46]

Personnel[46]

• Kieran Hebden – production, writing
• Tom Baker – hang on "Lush"
• Matthew Cooper – design
• Jason Evans – design, photography
• Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – additional synthesiser programming on "LA Trance"

Software[46][2]

• Ableton Live – Mixing and processing
• Omnisphere, Kontakt, Dexed, Arturia V Collection, Legowelt Juno sample kit – sound generators
• iPhone voice memos – field recording