The Chemical Brothers busted onto the scene in 1995 with Exit Planet Dust and expanded musical horizons with 1997's Dig Your Own Hole. Big Beat electronica was hyped to be the next big thing.
However, Moby, Fatboy Slim, Daft Punk and other leaders of the movement have all fallen off the map of late, stuck in their search for commercial success.
With 2005's Push The Button, the Chem Bros proved they were faring better than the competition. They did indeed push some of the right buttons on this album, especially on the title track, which frequently made its way onto college radio request lists for months following its release.
Two years later, We Are The Night contains similar but less satisfying sounds, as Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands have arranged a gang of danceable trance jams, along with a few slow-paced spacey soundscapes that may be a little less conducive to busting a move. Not easily classifiable, the eclectic duo has been described as a combo of electronica, trance, techno, dance and house, among others.
Here, the Bros' indefinability plays to both their advantage and disadvantage; tracks are alternately refreshing and revolting. British band the Klaxons join The Brothers on "All Rights Reversed" but the clumsy collaboration slowly grows decidedly intolerable.
Conversely, "Saturate" is a fantastic acid-house concoction and surely worth checking out. But the CD's most interesting bit undoubtedly belongs to "The Salmon Dance," which features the Pharcyde's Fat Lip. Their oddly combined sound yields a wholly original moment. It's safe to say this is the first time anyone has ever rapped about the swimming and spawning tendencies of anadromous fish.
Also noteworthy is "A Modern Midnight Conversation," which contains beatific, floating vocals that work perfectly. One thing the modish beat definitely doesn't need, however, is more cowbell.
Claiming you are, in fact, "The Night" is quite a bold statement coming from a dance music band, and the disc doesn't exactly live up to its name. The uneven album is solid but falls well short of 1999's Surrender and will likely fail to strike a chord with mainstream America. But considering the fact the Brothers' last four discs were all huge hits with the Brits, one can only assume We Are The Night will top the U.K. pop charts once again.
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The Chemical Brothers - We Are The Night - CD Review
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