Richard D. James Album

Richard D. James Album packs impossible drum programming, lush strings and four-minute runtimes into music that feels compressed under pressure. Aphex pushes drill'n'bass beyond what fingers could reasonably follow, then hides the violence inside melodies sweet enough to disarm it. Density becomes its own kind of pop economy. Range is what it trades away; the records above it cover more ground.

Thirty-two minutes, chopped breakbeats faster than anyone was programming them, and string melodies that would sound sentimental at any other tempo. His most complete record and his most quietly emotional.