''This Is What We Do'' is the fourth
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...
by English electronic group
Leftfield
Leftfield are a British electronic music group formed in London in 1989, a duo of Neil Barnes and Paul Daley (the latter formerly of The Rivals and A Man Called Adam). The duo was influential in the evolution of electronic music in the 1990s ...
. It was released on 2 December 2022 by
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...
.
It is the band's first album in seven years, following the 2015 album ''
Alternative Light Source
''Alternative Light Source'' is the third album by the English electronic group Leftfield, released on 8 June 2015. It is the first new material following the band's 1999 album '' Rhythm and Stealth''. It is also the first Leftfield album withou ...
''.
The album features appearances by
Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten and poet
Lemn Sissay
Lemn Sissay FRSL (born 21 May 1967) is a British author and broadcaster. He was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympics, was chancellor of the University of Manchester from 2015 until 2022, and joined the Foundling Museum's board of trus ...
.
Background
The album was written during Neil Barnes' recovery from cancer. On 27 July 2022, Leftfield announced the release of their first album in seven years, along with the first single "Pulse".
The second single "Accumulator" was released on 21 September 2022.
Cover art
The album's cover art was photographed by American photographer
Steve McCurry
Steve McCurry (born April 23, 1950) is an American photographer, freelancer, and photojournalist. His photo ''Afghan Girl'', of a girl with piercing green eyes, has appeared on the cover of ''National Geographic'' several times. McCurry has photo ...
, and was "chosen to reflect the warmth and positivity of this musically eclectic and upbeat record as well as to celebrate the connections that we make with other throughout our lives."
Critical reception
''This Is What We Do'' was met with "generally favorable" reviews from critics. 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 rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an
average
In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...
score of 77, based on 6 reviews.
The album reached number 7 in Scotland,
[ and number 18 in the UK.][
]
Track listing
Charts
Remix version
In February 2023, Leftfield announced an album of dub remixes of the tracks from ''This Is What We Do'' entitled ''This Is What We Do. Version Excursion''. The album was released on pink vinyl only in conjunction with Record Store Day
Record Store Day is a semi-annual event established in 2008 to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". Held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November, the day brings together f ...
on 22 April 2023.
Track listing
References
External links
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{{Authority control
2022 albums
Leftfield albums