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Rating: Premise:
the one writing to you is (or was??) a huge fan of the Chemical Brothers, who spent years listening to their tracks and loved all their albums, wearing them out from listening.
Let’s get straight to the point: “We Are The Night” is the worst album by the Chemicals. Two years after the mediocre but still decent “Push the Button,” Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons decide to lock themselves in an old bunker to start working on what we can define as a revival of 80s electronic sounds, the same sound that (according to them) defined the club scene in Manchester that most influenced them as youths. Needless to say, every self-respecting fan, when they get their hands on a new album from their idols, can’t wait to listen to it all, hoping to face a new masterpiece, especially after the previous album wasn’t that great… but let's not get lost in chatter and analyze the album track by track:
1- “No Path To Follow” – Nothing particular to say about this intro. A low voice that becomes clearer and clearer chants “There’s no path to follow” until it leads us to the first proper track.
2- “We Are The Night” - mmm…Surrender…. Right from the start you have the sensation that something beautiful will arrive, in fact, the first thing you hear is a sample from “The Sunshine Underground,” from the aforementioned (and highly praised) album. The groove starts pushing in, and we are all ready to let loose… but then at some point, something happens, or rather nothing happens: the beat doesn’t grab us, the groove is boring, repetitive, not to mention dreadful. It feels like a piece discarded from "Surrender."
3- “All Rights Reversed” – The much-talked-about collaboration with the Klaxons starts with a chorus (or rather a lament) that’s immediately unbearable. The track proceeds but fails to capture, and then at a certain point tries to revive itself through the Chemical siblings’ experiments, but it’s a lost challenge.
4- “Saturate” –The best track. A simple yet beautiful groove serves as the matrix for a very enjoyable song that tries to emulate the atmosphere of the old (and unsurpassable) “The Private Psychedelic Reel”. The track is structured as a crescendo of the same groove that gradually becomes richer and more epic. However, it must also be said that despite it all, “Saturate” isn’t a masterpiece...
5- “Do It Again” – Now we come to what (for me) is the sore point: the lead single. Well, there’s no denying it, what was once a suspicion is now a certainty. The Chemical Brothers prefer to follow trends rather than their personal style. The track has a “trendy” rhythm and a “cool” groove which I constantly heard on the radio during Gabry Ponte’s show. For heaven’s sake, the track isn't horribly bad, but to me, it only represents a downfall into market logic. Moreover, it doesn’t even remotely approach the dance power of their historic singles, a failure.
6- “Das Spiegel” – I’ll be brief. This track is bad.
7- “The Salmon Dance” – Many describe it as a useless or horrible track, I consider it a fun experiment but what I can't understand is: Why?? Why include a song about an interview with a salmon (!!!) in an album?? Wouldn’t it have been better as a B-side of a single?? Aside from that, the track is amusing (mostly thanks to the really cute video).
8- “Burst Generator” – Another purely electronic track and one of the best: just like in “Saturate” we again have acidic electronic and retro samples trying to approach “Surrender.” The track flows pleasantly until the end, but what’s consistently missing is the same: the explosive power of the Chemicals. The one that grabs you even against your will and makes you dance like a fool in the middle of the room, freeing your mind of all thoughts.
9- “A Modern Midnight Conversation” – In my opinion, this track is second only to “Saturate.” The groove heavily draws from the ’80s both for the synths and the rhythms, which also recall certain hip-hop tracks from that period. A simple but effective and well-structured track.
10- “Battle Scars” – At this point, the theme of the intro is revisited. But once the little chorus ends and the track starts, the thought is: “What the H**L is this?? A 70s rock-folk track with a xylophone attached??” I won’t say more about this track because I might curse. Without a doubt, the worst track.
11- “Harpoons” - An instrumental interlude (but well crafted) that leads us towards the last track.
12- “The Pills Won’t Help You Now” – I’ve read in some reviews that this is potentially the best track, but frankly, I can't understand it: a track at most soporific, a sort of lullaby that concludes in a “Dream On” way what is the first self-parodic album I’ve ever heard in all the years I’ve listened to electronic music.
So, from what you’ve read, you’ll have understood that the sensation that pervades the listener (but especially the diehard fan) is disappointment: after this album it's hard to think what the chemical brothers will come up with next, if those sounds we loved so much will return with the same power they once had. At least one merit must be recognized however: they did not repeat their formula, but good grief, what a journey it is to create a good album!!! Nonetheless, the era of the big beat is long gone and buried.
2 Stars only because I am (or was?) a fan of theirs.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
05 Do It Again (05:32)
Let's turn this thing electric (x8)
Do it again! (x4)
Oh my god what have I done? Do it again!
All I wanted was a little fun. Do it again!
Got a brain like bubble gum. Do it again!
Blowing up my cranium. Do it again!
Oh my god what have I done? Do it again!
All I wanted was a little fun. Do it again!
Got a brain like bubble gum. Do it again!
Blowing up my cranium. Do it again!
Oh my god what have I done? Do it again!
All I wanted was a little fun. Do it again!
Got a brain like bubble gum. Do it again!
Blowing up my cranium. Do it again!
Oh my god what have I done? Do it again!
All I wanted was a little fun. Do it again!
Got a brain like bubble gum. Do it again!
Blowing up my cranium. Do it again!
Turn of my ro-botic brain.
All my thoughts are all the same. (all insane)
Do it again! (x8)
Paint my face and bang my drum.
Throw my bone up to the sun.
Bang my drum and paint my face.
Pump my cave to hyperspace.
Do it again! (x8)
Oh my god what have I done? Do it again!
All I wanted was a little fun. Do it again!
Got a brain like bubble gum. Do it again!
Blowing up my cranium. Do it again!
Oh my god what have I done? Do it again!
All I wanted was a little fun. Do it again!
Got a brain like bubble gum. Do it again!
Blowing up my cranium. Do it again!
Turn of my ro-botic brain.
All my thoughts are all the same. (all insane)
06 Das Spiegel (05:51)
There's no path to follow
There's no path to follow
There's a line in the sand
Put there by a man
By a man whose children who built the castles made of stone
There's a man in the sky
Giving reasons why
That line grows deeper like these shackles round our bones
Move on to my own
Here come battle scars
It's the final charge
Here come battle scars
There's a child born
To a land of scorn
Sneaks past the borders and the lords that hold his hand
He was led like a lamb
All part of the plan
This castle crumbles as he walks out of this land
Move on to my own
Here come battle scars
It's the final charge
Here come battle scars
This is what we own
Here come battle scars
This is where we are
Here come battle scars
There's no path to follow
There's no path to follow
There's no path to follow
Living for the reasons
of the dead that moved to
paper from their heads
into my fingers
and my deadly view is
strangled by the rent
I have no purpose in this land
have I forgotten how to stand up
with the humor and the need
I've got to find a way to be
I just turn up the stereo
I can't survive without the cold
This culture's fallen off its feet
I've got to find a brand new beat
beat (beat) beat
beat (beat) beat
beat (beat) beat
There's a road ahead
'tween the live and dead
Church bells are ringing like the panic in my head
Step, step, one by one
Walk into the setting sun
Water's rising, rising fast
History catching up at last
Danger ahead, death behind
No one to follow but old man time
Time, time, take us back before the line was drawn
Before the sky turned black
07 The Salmon Dance (03:40)
SALMON DANCE - CHEMICAL BROTHERS FEAT. FATLIP
Hello Boys and girls, my name is FatLip
And this is my friend Sammy the Salmon
*What it do? *
Today, we're going to teach you some fun facts about Salmon
And a brand new dance
Let me introduce to you a brand new dance
I know you're gonna love it if you give it one chance
It's not complicated, it's not too hard
You don't even have to be a hip hop star
See anyone can do it, all you need is style
Listen up peep gang I'm gonna show you how
Put your hands to the side, as silly as it seems
And shake your body like a salmon floatin' up stream!
I'll float up stream
(You know how we do it, you know how we do it)
Again
*All my peeps spend part of their life in fresh water*
*And part of their life in salt water*
Wow, very interesting
*We change round a couple of days after spawning*
*Then we die*
When I first did the Salmon all the people just laughed
They looked around and stood like I was on crack
I heard somebody say out loud what the fuck is that
This nigga's dancin like a fish while he's doin' the snap
But the more I kept doing it the more they kept feelin' it
And then I heard some bitches say yo that niggas killin' it
By the end of the night everyone was on my team
And the whole club was dancing like a salmon floatin' up stream!
I'll float up stream
(You know how we do it, you know how we do it)
Again
*Most of our friends find their home waters by sense of smell*
*Which is even more keen than that of a dog or a bear*
Wow
*My family also rely on ocean currents, tides*
*The gravitational pull of the moon*(I'm floatin' upstream again)
The moon? Fish pay attention to the moon? Wow. Who knew?
*Did you know? *
What?
*That I could go to Japan, and back. *
You're kidding me. Amazing. Jeez
*Polluted water can kill both baby salmon, that are developing*
*And the adult salmon, that are on their way to spawn. *
Wow what a shame, what a shame
Huh?
Woah
Wow. Hey s-kids, hey give it up for s-Sammy the Salmon and his amazing salmon dance
Huh? Whadda ya say?
Who's hungry?
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Other reviews
By Suonoonous
The misstep made with the boring, verbose, unnecessarily repetitive, and ultimately useless 'Push The Button' remains just a bad memory in front of this new work.
'Pills won’t help you Now' with Midlake is one of the most beautiful songs written and played by the duo since their debut.
By beso
"I don’t like this album. So, you’ll ask why my rating. Because it’s a great album. It’s a courageous work, full of new ideas, study, thoughts, and reasoning."
"A Chemical album should make me dance. This one instead makes me think about many other things."
By GrantNicholas
"A career like that of the Chemical Brothers speaks for itself."
"There are noticeable improvements compared to the weak predecessor, mostly in terms of sound production."
