“Come With Us” five stars…..
Review by Paul Bost, based on five stars.
When electronic music moved from abandoned warehouses to major labels in the mid 90s, industry hopes were high that robots would soon rule the sales charts. Although only a few acts have made a dent on the Billboard Top 50 since then, electronica has made its presence felt in other legitimate ways.
Superstar D.J.’s Paul Oakenfold, Sasha and Deep Dish draw top billing at electronic and mainstream music festivals, while Madonna and ‘N Sync have lured the likes of Mirwais and B.T. to produce their multi-platinum hits. However, most indicative of electronica’s success and legitimacy are the still-flourishing careers of many of its formative artists.
One such artist is Manchester’s Chemical Brothers. The duo, consisting of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, maintained their success not by expanding on the stylings of one particular electronic tradition. In fact, the Chemical Brothers are increasingly difficult to classify by genre. Rather, the Chemical Brothers’ success has been and is based on a simple dictum made famous by George Clinton: Free your mind and the rest will follow (En Vogue edit in effect).
Realizing that electronica lives and dies on the dance floor, the Chemical Brothers primarily make music that is danceable. What follows though is not the norm: The group also makes real albums, albums that are cohesive, carry emotional currency and are not just 12 tracks of kick and hi-hat. The Chemical Brothers carry on this tradition with its latest release, “Come With Us,” the first great album of 2002.
With reports coming out of the chemical camp that “Come With Us” would be more of a cerebral exercise than an actual cardio-vascular workout, many wondered if the new album would have any “Block Rockin’ Beats” style rave-ups. Not to worry, the album is chock full of irresistible hooks, drawing from all types of disparate influences.
“Hoops” mixes a hallucinogenic vocal sample with dirty Miami bass, while “My Elastic Eye” features a kick-snare workout that would make Timbaland hang up his 808.
Unlike many of its contemporaries, the Chemical Brothers is able to create amazingly dense tracks without ever sounding like an inordinate amount of layering has diminished the drive of the beat. Throughout the sound collage of keyboards, turn tableism, vocalists and live instrumentation, the focus of each track remains clear.
Vocalists Richard Ashcroft, formerly of the Verve, and Beth Orton lend their talents to two of the album’s cuts. Far from only having club currency, both tracks are genuinely moving songs, showcasing the pop genius that accompanies the Chemical Brothers’ electronic mastery.
The album’s most telling track is the clubby “Star Guitar.” Minutes into the compression-decompression exercise is the anonymously sung chorus, “you should feel what I feel.” When it comes down to it, the Chemical Brothers isn’t house or big beat or anything so easily classified, but just some musicians with a jones for rhythm waiting for anyone, b-boy to rocker, to feel what they feel.
— Review by Paul Bost, based on five stars.
February 07, 2002
