The Chemical Brothers are clever men. Despite the history degrees. They’ve been waving glow-sticks long enough to warrant this ten-year retrospective, holding the limelight as their more artful cohorts drifted back into the dance Underworld. The secret of their continued success: celebrity mates. By borrowing the recognition factor of rock vocalists, the Chemicals extend their reach outside the dance aisle of HMV. ‘Setting Sun’, still their best track, relies more upon Noel Gallagher’s voice and lyrics than on the horde of air-raid sirens that he is trying to mend. Similarly, the new single, ‘The Golden Path’, would be nothing special without Wayne Coyne’s hippyfied rewrite of the lyrics to Tenacious D’s ‘Tribute’. On ‘Out of Control’, Bernard Sumner slips easily back into his flat-voiced role, whilst his hosts pay homage to New Order so openly that, were Sumner not involved, someone’d end up in court. ‘Let Forever Be’ is similarly derivative, sounding like the Beatles, sitting in a curry house, watching Ringo have an epileptic fit behind a drum kit. Not to say this is bad; just that it occasionally feels like the dancing-up of guitar records you already own. Still, ‘The Private Psychedelic Reel’ proves that the Brothers can do hard dance without breaking a sweat. The only real problem is the apparent lack of development in the music; why haven’t the Brothers taken more advantage of advances in shiny new guitar technology? Expect another album like this in 2013. Vocals aside, it’ll probably sound the same, but that’s no bad thing.ARCHIVE: 0th Week MT2003
