The Less You Know, the Better is the fourth studio album by American hip hop producer DJ Shadow, released on September 30, 2011, by Island Records.

Finally, on May 10, 2011, DJ Shadow confirmed via his Facebook page and official website that his new album, revealed to be entitled The Less You Know, the Better, was finished and that it would be released the following September.

But this one's partly about being stuck overnight at some airport terminal in Dallas and having CNN and Fox blasting my brain out for no apparent reason.

[12] Nate Patrin of Pitchfork wrote that the EP's tracks "suggest a new direction more along the lines of what people expected from [Shadow] 10 years ago" and graded the release 7.0/10.

"I'm Excited", featuring Afrikan Boy, was premiered on DJ Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 program on July 7, 2011, and was intended to be the follow-up single in promotion of the album.

[18] "Warning Call", featuring Tom Vek, was made available for free download on DJ Shadow's official website on September 7, 2011, to those who liked the artist's Facebook page.

[22] The music video for "Scale It Back", released on November 10, 2010, was directed by Ewan Jones Morris and Casey Raymond and consists of a single long take highlighting various subjects, including a pterodactyl, a Viking, and a puppet monkey.

[23] "Come on Riding (Through the Cosmos)" was issued as a limited edition 7-inch single for Record Store Day on April 18, 2012, with all proceeds going to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

[24] To coincide with the release, the organizers of the Secret 7" project held a contest inviting artists to send in their designs for the single's record sleeve.

[27] Andrew Perry of The Daily Telegraph wrote positively of the album, stating that it upholds the "pioneering spirit" of Shadow's debut release Endtroducing..... by "regularly straying from the constrictions of classic hip hop.

"[30] John Bush of AllMusic cited The Less You Know, the Better as "one of the most entertaining albums of the year, with countless moments of brilliance" and wrote that it "sounds closer to his classic Endtroducing..... than any of his others, as though Shadow's finally willing to embrace his career landmark instead of constantly play against type.

"[28] Writing for Rolling Stone, Will Hermes wrote that while the album "may lack his debut's soul-jazz seamlessness, it compensates with bipolar freakiness.

"[36] The Guardian's Dave Simpson described the album as "a hit-and-miss affair",[31] while Spin's Rob Harvilla similarly characterized it as "equal parts frustrating and admirable", though also "nowhere near as antagonistic as 2006's hyphy-saturated The Outsider".

[39] While criticizing The Less You Know, the Better for what he felt was a lack of a coherent mood, describing it as "a highly schizophrenic collection", J.R. Moores of Drowned in Sound ultimately praised it as an improvement over The Outsider and "a step in the right direction.

"[41] Sam Richards of NME, however, felt that the album sounded "like the work of a man struggling to recall his motivations for making music in the first place.