Rating: NNNN
Thirteen years and seven albums in (the last two of which weren’t great), the Chemical Brothers have regained some of their past glory. This stripped-down effort forgoes the high-profile collaborations we’ve come to expect to create an unstrained, repetitive thumpathon that fits right into their catalogue.
[rssbreak]
On Snow, the closest thing to a collab, vocals by Stephanie Dosen counterbalance the SETI signal-into-space beeps. Following this is a 12-minute album anchor, Escape Velocity, that hints at M83 before ending on an extrapolation of the Who’s Baba O’Riley electronic chatter. The album never fades, and galvanizes the Brothers’ rep for building you up and releasing.
Top track: Escape Velocity
