#1803 The Chemical Brothers - Born in the Echoes

Sometime around Surrender you knew these dudes were always going to be worth keeping one eye on. That big lateral leap into house, slathered with their own special sauce; a sauce that had zero overlapping ingredients with their Blockrockers' Original Recipe. These guys never let a number of beats per minute or bass hits per measure keep em pinned for a three count.

That unconventional energy's the best and worst thing on this record. When it's weird, it's good. Shit bends, songs get minimalist//busy, and you feel the whole thing tick, your head converted to some unknown clockwork purpose. The rebirthy acid of EML Ritual, straight into that fucked up squon! . . . squon! . . . squon! Such an awkward, uncomfortable piece of timing that gets right up in your skin, giving you this whole extra side tempo to groove to. Just Bang's clopping Orbitalism, the title track's sweep'n'thump, etc.

But then there's the more pop vocal tracks that mostly* land flat. Go seems fun, but if I told you that was the new Black Eyed Peas single, would you tell me to get the fuck out with any real confidence? The falsetto on SIFSD, actually the whole opening salvo's kind of a disaster, building icky momentum that kind of ruins the otherwise pretty interesting Under Neon Lights.

As a listen, it's a strangely structured, poorly considered record that would have played better if the brothers had trusted themselves and kept their most accessible songs out of the way of the good ones. Still, once you get into the thick of it there's a whole secret labyrinth, bristling with little surprises 3.5/5

*Beck's turn on Wide Open's an exception, a real pretty note to go out on