Hmm, not sure if this will get posted, but:

I really enjoyed this album when I first came across it. I was into very close listening at the time, and was rewarded for my efforts. "And they all look broken hearted" is particularly rewarding for someone paying too much attention, the melodies of the strings mesh and slip in and out of synch with some jazzy improvised sounding drums. Still sends shivers down my spine when I listen to it under the influence.

On a related note, many songs on this album have turned out to be absolutely outstanding as background music for an indulgently long/sensual session of love making. Particularly hands, she moves she, my angel rocks back and forth, unspoken, and and they all look broken hearted. the music has excellent rhythms, is not too intense/grating, and flows through tantalizing progressions with ease. Incidentally it's all quite beautiful as well.

With the exception of maybe "Great Day" off the madvillain remixes, this is four tet at his greatest.

This piece of music flows through speakers like perfectly crafted clouds of dark candy coating. Its delectable, intoxicating, and haunting, but you feel as if this aural feast is lacking in the building blocks. The simple joy of something beautiful is infused within these tracks. It is a cold, frosty, somber joy that is not unlike Nick Drakes folk recordings. The old, "life is dark, and I'm sad but isnt that tree wonderful" kind of feeling. His sounds shimmer, and overlay like a child's view Steve Reich. The abstractions in sound are wonderful, the dissonance is eloquently stated, but the anchoring of these abstractions within a simply gorgeous progression is a bit of an easy sell. Brian Wilson did it with the Beach Boys, as did Dave Axelrod. But to use beauty as a listening marker in a piece of music that relies so heavy on pulses and glitches is an easy way out. The atmospheres created by Four Tet are undeniable, and the level of taste in tone and sound is way above par. Suffice it to say the guy knows his way around a record collection. As a stately bit of 21st century electronic pop it funtions a high art. But the importance of this recording is not immediately recognizable when projected against the new century's diverse musical landscape.

Rounds, like Four Tet's other albums is full of warm, unhurried, mellow acoustic beats. Kieran Hebden creates experimental electronica, but avoids the usual frantic barrage of computerised whirs, clicks and beeps. Even at its most eclectic, this music does not sound harsh like so much other experimental material out there. From the start of Hands (where the drums pull the song beautifully together, after a cacophonous beginning) to the end of Slow Jam (full of hilarious samples of a squeaking rubber duck) this is a very nice album for someone wanting to hear something different, and have their ears challenged, but not assaulted.