DJ Shadow’s recent release The Less You Know The Better follows his usual plan of attack, bringing together all manner of different sounds to create something new and slightly left-of-centre. As is always the case with albums of this ilk, some of it hits and some of it misses. But if you’re a fan of experimentation in sounds, then you will have, no doubt, been looking forward to this one.

Being a fan of Shadow’s work for many years now, it pains me to say that the first two thirds of the album really fail to strike with any sort of vitriol. Shadow may have been going for a slightly down tempo and sombre record, but if that was the case, this effort doesn’t quite hit its intended mark. After many spins I still found myself tuning-out without even realising, and that was with headphones on.

As with most of Shadow’s previous work, the tracks jump between styles and their base sound. An illustration of those varying sounds comes in the first two tracks: the aptly named Circular Logic sees sporadic drum beats layered with different samples, feeling to be perpetually moving forward, while looping around and around again. Border Crossing, however, features a heavy metal guitar riff interspersed with a sparse drum beat, creating a sound that harks back to the industrial metal of the early to mid nineties.

Stay The Course, on paper at least, had the potential for brilliance. Featuring two great MCs in the likes of Talib Kweli and Posdenous (of De La Soul fame) spitting wordy verses over a complicated break beat, this should have been a killer collab’. Unfortunately, even this joint fails to fully engage the listener.

The record really takes a really sombre tone from this point in. I’ve Been Trying sees a slow guitar track met with an even slower vocal, while Sad and Lonely delivers exactly what it promises in the title: an ethereal beat laced with a solemn female vocal, singing about – wait for it – being sad and lonely. Tedium, again, follows an all too familiar suit. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t have anything against sombre or slow records, some of the most beautiful albums around have been all doom-and-gloom content wise. But it needs to be done well enough that the listener feels the emotions the artist is trying to evoke, rather than being left down-right bored and depressed.

Warning Call and Enemy Lines tend to stand out from the rest, the latter especially contains great layering of sounds as Shadow weaves a country style guitar part though the back of the track which fits well. Give Me Back The Night unfortunately stands out for the wrong reasons – unless you’re into slam poetry and being yelled at, in which case this is the track for you! But if you find being yelled at confronting and slam poetry contrived and confusing, then like me, you will also struggle to understand this track.

Shadow was, and due to seminal albums like Endtroducing and Diminishing Returns , always will be an important producer and DJ. Unfortunately The Less You Know The Better fails to leave the same impressions as the two aforementioned albums. If you are listening purely for the scratches, then you will still enjoy this album – Shadow’s cuts on almost every track still defy belief. But overall, it didn’t have me wanting to push repeat.

The Less You Know, The Better is out now on Universal Music.