Insides (album)
Insides is the third studio album by English musician and producer Jon Hopkins. Released on 5 May 2009, it reached No. 15 on the "Billboard" Dance/Electronic Album Chart in 2009. "PopMatters" listed the album as one of the top ten electronic albums of 2009. Overview. Production. Hopkins's third album, "Insides", was released by Domino Records on 5 May 2009. Musicians Lisa Lindley-Jones, Leo Abrahams, Emma Smith, Davide Rossi, and Vince Sipprell contributed to the studio recordings. "Insides" included the track "Light Through the Veins," which had previously been used on the Coldplay album "Viva la  Vida or Death and All His Friends". Some of the tracks had been written by Hopkins sporadically since his last release, while others were based on the music he had composed for the "Entity" production commissioned by choreographer Wayne McGregor in 2008. Reception. "Insides" charted at No. 15 on the "Billboard" Dance/Electronic Albums chart. "PopMatters" listed the album as one of the top ten electronic albums of 2009. Reviews. The album received positive reviews from sources such as "PopMatters", Allmusic, and the "BBC". Paul Clarke of the "BBC" wrote that "Hopkins [is] capable of producing music as epic, soaring  and emotional as any power ballad in his own way though. Take "Light Through The Veins" for example...a close relative of Ulrich Schnauss' "In All The Wrong Places", it's a majestic piece of widescreen shoegazing which grows ever more expansive throughout its entire ten-minute duration...no amount of reflected glory could ever fully illuminate "Insides"' mysterious depths." According to other reviews, the album "takes its cues from ambient electronica, but uses strings and piano, along with some very tasty beats and dubstep-influenced bass on some tracks." Alan Ranta of "Tiny Mix Tapes" stated the album "strikes  me as his single most aggressive release yet. His sense of timing, the clarity of his production, and the variety of effects he employs draw you into the story that each instrumental tells. Jon Hopkins is not a button-pushing man of presets; he is a bona fide composer and a trained pianist. Craftsmanship sets him apart, and allows "Insides" to be as incredibly moving as it is and always will be."