|
 |
The Chemical BrothersPush The Button Freestyle Dust/Virgin/EMI So why does it seem that the new Chemical Brothers album 'Push the Button' has met with a critical reception which can best be described as warm ambivalence? To cut to the chase, it's because the much-heralded diversion into rap (including first single Galvanize) doesn't really sit right with the ambience The Chemical Brothers usually generate. At their block-rockin' best they've always embraced elements of hip-hop but they've been blessed by obliquely poetic lyrics (aka mantra-like meaninglessness). By marrying their beats to prosaic rapping (particularly Anwar on Left Right) the results diminish the otherworldly quality of their music. It's almost better when they step back further and bite hip-hop's influences,as on the rockit funk of The Big Jump or when Come Inside breaks out all 'Enter The Dragon'. Hold Tight London is the sort of narcotized haze they used to have Beth Orton sing (she's too busy now, so here it's Anna-Lynne Williams) while The Boxer is the big, psychedelic white soul anthem backed by an up-tempo disco groove, Believe is the same only gone all avant-guarde underground teutonic techno, and the tawdry flamenco head-trip of Shake Break Bounce is the only record in recent times to sound like it should feature Pharell Williams which doesn't. The trouble is in the standard The Chemical Brothers have set for their albums. After the wild, seamless ride through crazy, diverse territory on 2002's 'Come With Us' it's impossible not to note a few flat spots in the terrain of 'Push The Button'. It's a good album but just feels a touch incomplete, particularly in the way it peters out with the lesser Private Psychedelic Reels Of Marvo Ging and Surface To Air. The trouble with these lovely-to-listen-to tracks is true of the album as a whole: we've come to expect "breathtaking", so "lovely" just doesn't cut it anymore.  |
|
The latest issue available now!     |
All content copyright dB Magazine