The Chemical Brothers

Although they've never stopped evolving as artists, The Chemical Brothers will always be associated with that brief moment in the late '90s when the entire record industry was convinced that electronica was about to overtake the American pop market. That never came to pass, but the duo nevertheless managed to score a few crossover hits, and have been coasting along on that initial wave of goodwill ever since.

Their latest album, We Are the Night, recycles several samples that the team has used in the past—most obviously, they sample their own "Sunshine Underground" on the title track—but the record still manages to sound like the freshest thing they've produced thus far in the 21st century. The songs mainly stay within the Brothers' established psychedelic-electro style, but the arrangements are considerably less dense than their previous efforts, lending the material an ethereal late-night quality. The two are at their best when they balance their DJ instincts with songwriting craft, resulting in sharply-written tracks like the Timbaland-esque lead single "Do It Again" and "Battle Scars," their droll-yet-funky collaboration with the singer-songwriter Willy Mason.

—Matthew Perpetua
07.18.07

The Chemical Brothers never stopped being great producers, but during some of their ho-hum full-lengths of the early 2000s, they relied too much on production skills and forgot what they were first known for: innovative sounds and great hooks. (It's hard to deny that their comparatively sleek psychedelic house was a far cry from the big-beat bombast and excitement of their first two LPs.) Unfortunately, We Are the Night is no departure, although it does reveal Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons showing some build-to-suit character instead of angling for the straitjacket-tight and over-serious dance music of their past ten years. The first half of the record, including the single "Do It Again" (unconsciously ironic title?), is no better nor worse than most of what the Chemical Brothers produced between 1998 and 2007, but beginning with a diverting little electro noodling called "Das Spiegel," it becomes clear that there's a little more going on here. Hip-hop's favorite toker, Fatlip, stops by to relate an odd tale about fish ("The Salmon Dance"), "A Modern Midnight Conversation" dabbles in Italo-disco (but gets most of its flavor from a sample), and the duo stretch out (slightly) for the creepy four-four crawl "Battle Scars" with neo-folkie Willy Mason. The Chemical Brothers have occasionally shrouded their more interesting productions until the second half of their LPs, but something else is obviously needed. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide