''...I Care Because You Do'' is the third studio album by the British

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

artist and producer Richard D. James under the alias of Aphex Twin. It was released on 24 April 1995 through

Warp Records Warp Records is a British independent record label that specialises in Electronic music, electronic, indie rock and experimental music. It was founded in Sheffield in 1989 by Steve Beckett, Robert Mitchell and Robert Gordon. It has released recor ...

and contains material recorded between 1990 and 1994. It marked James's return to a beat-driven sound following the mostly ambient album '' Selected Ambient Works Volume II'' (1994), and combines abrasive rhythms with symphonic and ambient elements. The cover artwork is a

self-portrait Self-portraits are Portrait painting, portraits artists make of themselves. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, the practice of self-portraiture only gaining momentum in the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century ...

of James. ''...I Care Because You Do'' entered the 's Dance Albums Chart at number4 and the Albums Chart at number24. It was supported by the single and

Extended Play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

(EP) release of the track " Ventolin". The album received positive reviews. It garnered comparisons to the work of composer

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

, who later created an orchestral version of the track "Icct Hedral", and

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

. The reviewers for ''

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'', ''

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'', and ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' preferred it to his two previous albums. In 2017 ''

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'' ranked ''...I Care Because You Do'' the 13th best IDM album of all time.

Composition

Each track on ''...I Care Because You Do'' is annotated with a date; the tracks were created between 1990 and 1994. It was James' final album to be recorded with mostly analogue technology before he began using

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

production methods. According to

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 ...

, the album finds James "pairing his hardcore experimentalism with more symphonic ambient material, aligned with the work of many post-classical composers" such as

. Writer Dave Thompson described the album as "pulling together calm, serene moments then launching into battering and bruising beat-heavy tracks", and said the rhythms shift "from trancey to hip-hoppish". Thompson also noted the influence of modern composers such as Glass. ''

'' stated the music has "little to do with techno in any of its more popular guises", and compared it to the work of Glass and

, and said the album draws "most strongly from hip-hop ... James' trademark is to put rhythm and percussion above all else; his beautiful, haunting melodies are relegated to the back of the mix." According to ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

'', ''...I Care Because You Do'' has been described as "occupying a middle-ground between Philip Glass and the Wu-Tang Clan". ''

'' wrote the album "showed up trip-hop laziness", while ''Dummy Mag'' said James was taking trip hop and "refashioning hevoguish genre in his own image". ''

'' wrote: "By adding layers of soft, warm synthesizer chords over skull-grinding electronic percussion, James creates sounds that are simultaneously comforting and scary". In 2003 ''

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 ...

'' summarized the album as "a shotgun wedding of analogue

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

and ambient porridge." In 2004 ''Rolling Stone'' stated the increasingly active drum backing on the album was inspired by the presence of

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) ...

music in the United Kingdom.

Release

''...I Care Because You Do'' was released on 24 April 1995 on vinyl record, compact disc, and cassette. It entered the 's Dance Albums Chart at number4 and the Albums Chart at number24, remaining on the latter for two weeks. The label 1972 re-released the album on vinyl on 18 September 2012. Warp also re-issued the album in vinyl with a download card on 8 October 2012. In 2017, the album was re-released in digital format with eight bonus tracks. The album's cover artwork is a self-portrait painted by James using

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, a software his friend Johnny Clayton taught him how to use when he received his first Apple Mac. It was the first of several Aphex Twin releases to feature an image of James' grinning face on the cover. Following the album's release, composer Philip Glass contributed an orchestral arrangement to "Icct Hedral" that was included on the 1995 EP '' Donkey Rhubarb''.

Reception

'' Select'' ranked ''...I Care Because You Do'' at 42 on its 2022 "Top 50 Albums of the Year" list, saying the album is "Leftfield, sound-pop brilliance" and James' "most coherent work to date". Another review in ''Select'' stated James had the ability to "make the avant-garde sound pop" and that he "delivers complex contemporary systems music in the most deliciously simple forms". ''

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'' gave the album a positive review, stating: "As ever, ames'palette of sound is astonishing, his arrangements effective and deliberate". ''Rolling Stone'' described the album as "classical music for a generation raised on samplers", stating James was "making some of the most engaging and important music of our time". ''

'' praised ''...I Care Because You Do'' and called it superior work to '' Selected Ambient Works Volume II'', writing it "reintroduces tension, more beats per minute, and sonic grime into his music", and that it "creates sounds that are simultaneously comforting and scary – a fitting metaphor for the contemporary clash of technology and the humans befuddled by it". ''

'' also stated that album is superior to ''Selected Ambient Works Volume II'' because ''...I Care Because You Do'' "cut the middle of echnos kitchen-sink aesthetic without sacrificing melody coherence or rhythm". ''Spin'' also described it as "a real album with its own gestalt", in which capacity it betters the "truly great" Aphex Twin albums '' Selected Ambient Works 85–92'' (1992) and ''

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

'' (1995). In a retrospective of James' work in ''

The Rolling Stone Album Guide ''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'', previously known as ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'', is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Its first edition was published in 1 ...

'',

Sasha Frere-Jones Alexander Roger Wallace "Sasha" Frere-Jones ( né Jones; born 1967) is an American writer, music critic, and musician. Frere-Jones was pop critic of the ''New Yorker'' from 2004 to 2015. In January 2015, he left the ''New Yorker'' to work for ' ...

said the album's more-recent tracks were its best ones. Justin Boreta from the group The Glitch Mob reviewed the album in 2015, praising it for "the juxtaposition between heavy darkness and gentle depth". ''

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 ...

'' reviewer Kyle Fowle described ''...I Care Because You Do'' as "a perfect bridge between James' implementation of experimental techno and glossy ambient". In 2017, ''

'' ranked it the 13th-best

intelligent dance music Intelligent dance music (IDM) is a style of electronic music originating in the early 1990s, defined by idiosyncratic experimentation rather than specific genre constraints.''"…the label 'IDM' (for avant-garde, 'intelligent dance music') see ...

(IDM) album of all time.

Track listing

Each track on ''...I Care Because You Do'' is annotated with the year of its recording. On 20 February 2017, James uploaded the album to his website with 8 additional tracks.

Personnel

The album credits only state: "Everything by Richard D. James. Self portrait painted by me. Design help from John."

Charts

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:I Care Because You Do Aphex Twin albums 1995 albums Warp Records albums Sire Records albums Elektra Records albums Trip hop albums by British artists Classical albums by British artists Acid techno albums