now it has been over a year we are the night dropped into our lifes. so it's time to ask this question (it's on my mind for a long time):

what do you think of WATN? still a strong album?

in my opinion i think WATN is a album im into but my favourite tracks changed:

now its das spiegel, AMMC, the beautyful titletrack WATN, salmon dance.

i don't know why: DIA is a switcher for me these days (like the liveversion much more); the same with burst generator.

and i'm/was a little bit sad, that WATN didn't include a epic title (ok we are the night a little bit) like TPPR, SU or also OOC.

what do you think?

I still like WATN as a package; it is very strong as a whole. My positive opinions of the album remain and I find enjoyment in every song. There are other albums by the Chems that I like more, but unlike some of those releases, I never skip over any track on this one. I do think the marketing and single selections for this album were lacking.

Das Spiegel has emerged as my favorite song on this release. Do It Again has never really grown on me the way I hoped it would and I think it was a poor choice for the lead off single. On the other hand, A Modern Midnight Conversation is a song I enjoy so much more than I used to. I will still defend The Salmon Dance as a fun diversion, although All Rights Reversed, Battle Scars or even Saturate probably would have made better choices for a second single. Burst Generator, We Are The Night, and The Pills Won't Help You Now are all great tracks in their own right, although I'm not sure any of them really hit that "epic" high. They do come pretty close. No Path To Follow and Harpoons are nice little sugue songs and I hope to see more of their type on future releases.

Japan really made out with their release as No Need and Seal are very good bonus tracks. Seal in particular should have been on every version of the album. I think most of the other b-sides and remixes from this album are average or below, although I do like the Oliver Huntemann Remix of Do It Again. EBW9 was definitely a highlight from this era, and I hope the next release from the Chemical Brothers sees a return to this hard, underground sound and style.

This is a good topic.

I still think We Are The Night is a strong album. It is still one of my favorite albums, period. It did make the rounds constantly for many solid months, but then I had to shelve it and give it a break. I adore this album, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing and I didn't want to crash and burn on We Are The Night.

Plus, this past year has been a difficult one personally. Whereas when I first started getting into the Chems all those years ago, I found the music pulled me out of the darkness and into the light giving me some hope or promise of how good life can be (as cheesy as that sounds) - but the trials of the past year made it very difficult to find comfort in music without it seeming as though I was trying to hold onto some part of my past that I felt was an unattainable lifetime away.

When We Are The Night first came out, things for me personally were going so great, life was good, the future was bright and all of that. Now when I listen to it, We Are The Night sort of reflects the promise of how good life can be despite it's ups and downs, trials and tribulations, these things that are what they are. If that makes any sense.

My favorite songs on We Are The Night are still my favorite songs. In this rediscovery, my outlook may be a little different than it was a year and some months ago, but certain things remain the same: Burst Generator is still my favorite track on the album, Salmon Dance still puts a smile on that face, the intro and loud crashing Sunshine Underground-esque plummet into We Are The Night's landscape still makes me feel that's what it sounds like when you're falling off the edge of the earth...

There are some songs I've grown especially fond of since this album first came out. Saturate being one of them with its delicate heavenly swirl of melody countered with these beats that could have been pulled from the earth's depths. The yearning that I felt when I first heard this song is still there, but nowadays it somehow feels different and I'm at a loss as how to accurately describe that. I've also grown immensely fond of A Modern Midnight Conversation whereas it was once my least favorite song on the album.

Songs like Battle Scars and The Pills Won't Help You Now seem to make a LOT more sense now than they did over a year ago. It's not that I didn't "get it" when We Are The Night was released - it's just that now, those songs tap into something more personal, deeper than they did previously.

I revisited We Are The Night a couple of months ago and it is, once again, making the constant rounds. For me, it has weathered the storm beautifully. Not one track goes unlistened. As hard as it was, shelving it and revisiting the album was a good move on my part because it allowed me to rediscover aspects of the Chems that made me fall in love with their music in the first place. That's not something I ever want to lose sight of. To me, We Are The Night is still the strong album it was when I first heard it, although it does seem like I'm hearing it through a slightly altered pair of ears. But that's not a bad thing at all - it just means this album has morphed into something more intensely personal than it was when I first heard it.

I think most of my opinions have stayed the same since after I saw them in late september last year. And it was a good thing I saw them live because my opinion on the album was rather bleak from the date of release.

The only song that I've lost touch with since the release date is "All Rights Reversed". The vocals have really spun this tune in the wrong direction for me.

It took me a long time to start liking "Do It Again", and of course seeing/hearing it live settled that one, for me. Good dance tune. Great live face melter.

"Saturate/EBW 8" was another awakening experience live. I never didn't like it, I just couldn't understand what was so special about it, especially when everyone raved about it in the EBW 8/9 thread aka forum orgasm thread. But now, the song speaks to me clearly. The build and the drums are immense! Probably a close top 10 Chems tune for me. Not to mention the most unorthodox EBW in the series.

My favorite tunes from release date have changed a little bit. Burst Generator coming in at number 1, Saturate 2, We Are the Night 3, and the underrated Das Spiegel at 4.

You might not believe it but I was very satisfied with the single releases. Even if I didn't initially like "Do it Again", it got unlikely people that I know talking about the Chemical Brothers. Same thing for the "The Salmon Dance", especially since it's such a chick song (in the good way, Thanks T and E ;) ). So I would pretty much say the singles did their job. I got mixed feelings with no 3rd single from WATN. I'm kinda happy they didn't force it, but if they did, I would have liked to have seen "Battle Scars" as the 3rd single.

I'm not sure how I would rate the album as a whole, but probably not in my top 3. Here comes your average cliche statements... I think the album is a grower, and it helped a lot to see it played live.

I still love the album, and I think it's stunning how every time I listen to it I get pangs of nostalgia so strong during various moments in the album that I actually have to stop what I'm doing and smile.

For instance, hearing Harpoons puts me in a really interesting space and brings back memories of where I was a year and a half ago, my trip to Amsterdam to see them play, meeting Jeanie and Mippio, and drives up and down the California/Oregon landscape. I remember playing the album for a group of rideshares in my car before it came out, and they were like, "Wow, that was a really cool ablum--thanks." And wow, that sounded kind of lame after reading it, but the point being that I think there was something with that album the Chems achieved that they did with no other album.

Cheers, boys.

Oh, and p.s.

@Whirls -- Burst Generator is definitely my favorite album on the track as well. You and I have some similar energy going on... :)

Nothings changed for me since the album came out but still love it of course. But I must admit that ARR is my fave on the album .Don't ask me why. My guess is that after I saw the live show last year, I've gained a new fondness for the track.

@MadPooter:

"Burst Generator is definitely my favorite album on the track as well"

Exactly!