The Chemical Brothers, Come With Us (Astralwerks) 9
Juicing up the energy on dancefloors since 1994 with a mix of hip-hop and bombastic rock 'n' roll, The Chemical Brothers can be blamed for introducing Big Beat to the unsuspecting masses. But while the Fatboy Slims are responsible for beating the beat to death, The Chemical Brothers have managed to evolve just enough to remain relevant, if not completely fresh. While their last couple albums played with pop forms and psychedelic rock (see the swirly "Setting Son," "Out Of Control" and "Let Forever Be"), Come With Us partly revisits their origins in Exit Planet Dust, focusing once again on dance music. "Come With Us" and "It Began In Africa" kick the album off with the kind of high-energy, mindless, visceral booty music we come to expect from The Chemical Brothers. "Galaxy Bounce" is a more ordinary sounding funk track with annoying sampled diva vocals. Yet the breakbeats redeem the track as at least good party fodder. The house-y "Star Guitar" manages to approximate the hypnotic, bittersweet emotional color of an early New Order instrumental without sounding superfluous. The seemingly down-tempo "Hoops," craftily takes you up an upward slope, using an Eastern-style scale that will find you ecstatically reaching for the sky. "Pioneer Skies" starts off with some baroque 60s psychedelic and ends up surfing the galaxy on space-rockin' sheets of sound. "The State We're In" is the Brothers' third collaboration with Beth Orton, and arguably the weakest track on the album. Her languid, folky ballad sucks the energy from the flow rather than providing calming respite. "The Test," with Richard Ashcroft, is more successful, proving to be another climactic, if predictable collaboration. Come With Us enters no musical realms we haven't seen before, especially the trippy electro-folk of Tranquility Bass. But no one can pull them off with as much accessible, joyous charm as The Chemical Brothers.
