''In the Mode'' (stylised as ''In the Møde'') is the second studio album by English

drum and bass Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast Break (music)#Breakbeat (element of music), breakbeats (typically 165–185 Tempo, beats per minute) with heavy Bass (music) ...

group

Roni Size & Reprazent Roni Size & Reprazent (stylised as Roni Size / Reprazent) are a British drum and bass group fronted by Roni Size. Their debut album ''New Forms'' won the Mercury Music Prize in 1997. Their follow-up album ''In the Mode'' featured artists includ ...

, released on 9 October 2000 on the

Talkin' Loud Talkin' Loud was a record label, originally founded by Gilles Peterson in 1990 after he left Acid Jazz Records. The label name is based on Peterson's Dingwalls club night "Talkin' Loud And Sayin' Something", itself a reference to James Brown a ...

label via

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

. The follow-up to the group's 1997

Mercury Music Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual Music award, music prize awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the Music of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom or Music of Ireland, Ireland. It was cre ...

-winning album ''

New Forms ''New Forms'' is the debut studio album by British drum and bass group Roni Size & Reprazent. It was released on 23 June 1997 through Talkin' Loud, and later re-released by Mercury Records and Universal Music Group. The album was released to cr ...

'', ''In the Mode'' featured guest appearances from

Method Man Clifford Smith, Jr. (born March 2, 1971), known professionally as Method Man, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. He is a member of the East Coast hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan, and is half of the hip hop duo Method Man & R ...

Rahzel Rozell Manely Brown (born October 6, 1964) is an American beatboxer and rapper, formerly a member of the Roots. Rahzel is known for an ability to sing or rap while simultaneously beatboxing, as evidenced in his performances of "Iron Man" and h ...

and

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to Rage) was an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1991. It consisted of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim ...

frontman

Zack de la Rocha Zacharias Manuel de la Rocha (born January 12, 1970) is an American musician, rapper, singer, songwriter, and political activist. He is best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Rage Against the Machine. Through both Rage Against ...

Background and recording

Roni Size & Reprazent released their debut album, ''New Forms'', in June 1997 to critical acclaim and commercial success, peaking at number 8 in the

UK Album Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Offici ...

. After winning the 1997

, the group found international fame and became an in-demand live band. Size donated the £25,000 prize money to the Bristol youth centre where he had learned to program a drum machine. Writing for ''In the Mode'' began at rehearsals for their live tour, where the band would create new music by jamming using samplers and live instruments. This new music saw Reprazent relying on fewer

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

influences and moving towards a harder

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

-influenced sound.

Release

The album was preceded by the release of the single "Who Told You" on 25 September, which reached number 17 on the UK Singles Chart and was promoted by a music video directed by

Hype Williams Harold "Hype" Williams (born August 1, 1970) is an American music video and film director, film producer, and screenwriter. Early life Williams was born in Queens. He is of mixed African-American and Honduran descent. He attended Adelphi Univ ...

. The tracks "Dirty Beats" and "Lucky Pressure" were also released as singles.

Reception

Commercial performance

''In the Mode'' entered the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

during the week ending 21 October 2000 and peaked at number 15. In the United States, the album reached number 10 on the

Heatseekers Albums The Heatseekers charts were "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales b ...

chart and number 181 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart.

Critical response

''In the Mode'' was released to some critical acclaim. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews and ratings from mainstream critics, the album received a score of 79, based on 16 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews".

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

rated ''In the Mode'' four stars out of five, though reviewer John Bush noted that "the highlights are over far too quickly, and the weaker tracks never should have appeared in the first place." Marc Savlov, writing for ''

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogra ...

'', awarded the album three stars out of five saying that it was "packed to bursting with arcane beats and skittery jungle rhythms" but remarked that it was "not so much out of date as it is out of time." ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

s Joshua Klein described ''In the Mode'' as "another volley of stylish drum-and-bass", though he noted that it "suffers a bit from overkill." Writing for '' Drowned in Sound'', reviewer Chris Nettleton wished for "more variety of tone" and awarded the album six out of ten. A review in the ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' described the album as "an example of fierce, righteous, and...fearlessly British innovation." and stated that "Roni Size and Reprazent are leaders in a field of one", awarding a score of seven out of ten. ''

Vibe Vibe, alternatively '' vibes,'' is short for ''vibration''. A "vibe" is an emotional reaction to the aura or energy felt to belong to a person, place or thing. Vibe may also refer to: People * DJ Vibe (born 1968), Portuguese DJ * Lasse Vibe (b ...

'' writer Jon Caramanica opined that ''In the Mode'' "just regurgitates old forms" and rated the album two and a half stars out of five.

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

, writing for ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'', gave the album an A rating, noting that "the album moves the way you always hope jungle will, like a cross between a tiger and a snake."

Track listing

Personnel

All personnel credits adapted from ''In the Mode''s liner notes. Reprazent *

Roni Size Ryan Owen Granville Williams (born 29 October 1969), better known by his stage name Roni Size, is an English DJ and record producer. He came to prominence in 1997 as the founder and frontman of Roni Size & Reprazent, a drum and bass collective. ...

– keyboards, programming, production,

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

Krust Kirk Thompson (born 26 July 1968), better known by his stage name Krust, is an English drum and bass producer, DJ and co-owner of the Full Cycle record label. Beyond his roles in the music industry, Thompson is also responsible for two busines ...

– keyboards, programming, production, recording * DJ Die – keyboards, programming, production, recording *Suv – engineering, programming, production, recording *Onallee – vocals *

Dynamite MC Dynamite MC (born Dominic Smith, 7 October 1973) is an English rapper and MC. He originally gained prominence in jungle/drum and bass, working with Roni Size & Reprazent, but has also released hip hop material. Career He started his MCing ca ...

– vocals Recording personnel *Dave Amso – mixing engineer, recording engineer,

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

*Lou Ortez – mixing engineer, recording engineer *Steve Solar – recording engineer, Pro Tools *Stuart Hawkes – mastering Additional personnel *Michael Williams – art direction *Tim Bret-Day – photography Additional performers * Ben Watt – guitar *Si John – bass *Rob Merrill – drums *Spry – percussion *

Max Richter Max Richter (; ; born 22 March 1966) is a German-born British composer and pianist. He works within postminimalist and contemporary classical styles. Richter is classically trained, having graduated in composition from the University of Edinbu ...

– strings *Alex Byron-Collins – piano *Joe Allen – bass *

– vocals *

– vocals

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:In the Mode Roni Size albums 2000 albums Talkin' Loud albums