Come With Us and everything before was just so great that I'm left feeling like I miss the Chemical Brothers. This new album is a bit weird, which is an odd thing to say about a Chemical Brothers album. Push the button was a bit different, but equally amazing.

This new album has songs that are so repetitive, very slow, downbeat, repetitive.

Why change so drastically? Come With Us was so kickin'! Keep things strong and unique!

Still a fan obviously!

Did Harry Mulisch write " The discovery of heaven " twice ?

Welcome btw ;-)

No, and of course I see your point! A very good point. I have listened to it several times now, and maybe it's just not enough kick to it. It's still pretty good, but I'll never stop listening to Come With Us, since it's definitely my favorite. It's got power, style and there isnt a single track i dont find absolutely awesome! Not often do I find a CD that I love every single track!

CWU is FUCKING GOLD!

It is! It's got the best sound! I can't stop listening to it STILL! It's been how long now that it's been out?! like 4 years?

"COME WITH US", LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah! Even the lyrics to Come With Us Rock! I'm not so sure about the "Salmon Dance" business we have on the new album. It's almost like a joke, its not very serious and cool like Come With Us :)

Surrender is my all time fav... WATN is different but I LOVE IT!!

Yeah Surrender is good. I still think Come With Us is the trippiest one out of all of them. It also has a really awesome sound that is held true throughout the album. Very consistent. All the songs flow and work together to make a wicked album.

"You should feel what I'm feeling. You should take what I'm taking..."

Come with us is an AMAZING album. The one that got me into the Chems. I love every single track on it , well maybe not so much pioneer skies. I like the end bit of it but the beginning of the song just hurts my ears :lol:

I said the other day that WATN and DYOH would be my fave albums , but this is not true i discovered. It changes around all the time. NOW i love WATN but i am actually also listening heaps to CWU again. In Oz the ONLY cd that i listened to was EPD. It really depends on what period of my life i am in.

Push the Button will be my least favorite album tho , and i still think it's pretty cool. As an album i dont rate it as high as other albums they've done, but for example Surface to air....that song, i cannot explain how amazing this song is to me.

Come With Us is my least favorite and least listened to of the bunch (sorry folks!) But I dont mean it to be a downer - that is just how I feel. I still like the album, I just like the other ones a lot more. :P

And I love We Are The Night. I instantly took to it, but I can see why it may be a hard thing to swallow for people that have certain expectations on what the Chems should sound like because I felt the same with Come With Us. But I like the change and direction We Are The Night illustrates at this point in the Chemical Brothers career. Their albums are all very different from one another, and there has been this sort of evolution going on with the release of each album yet there are these signatures, sounds and fingerprints that identify the songs as being pure Chemical. No use really wishing they would go back to how things were 4, 7, 10 years ago. Things keep on, progress and all that other stuff that comes with the changing times...

whirly - that's quite a revelation there.

honestly i got into the chems just when come with us was released, and i think the album is pure fuckin gold. like every other album.

i'm just a bit depressed that i can't say the same bout watn, the only album in the discog i don't find to be pure fuckin GOD music - i got in through come with us, but now can't put my finger on any single album till watn to be any lesser god. heard everyone a zillions times in my life, and for the first time in their career, i feel they have a weak album - that lacks consistency - it's got some amazing songs, but the direction and the album experience is missing. for me of course. maybe i'm going thru now what whirly was back when come with us came out.

Yeah Jack - I think there will always be the "one" album that brings a fan into the fold, that album will always hold a special place in your life (or heart if you want to be mellodramatic and somewhat cheesy, like I am - haha).

With We Are The Night, I think just by going on the various comments here in the forums - this album has either brought fans back into the fold who've lost their way in the late 90's early 2000. And we've also seen posts from people that feel this album just doesn't cut it. I think a lot of albums from the Chems and other bands are like that, sort of make-or-break - especially when a band has a rather illustrious back catalogue of music spanning over a decade like the Chems have. It is bound to happen to the best of bands with the most illustrious and long running careers, falling out of love is unavoidable given the subjectivity of music.

But I think it's OK and nothing to be ashamed of or depressed about if an album by your favorite band just isn't clicking like you want it to. There is no written rule that you have to like every single thing your favorite band puts out. It doesn't ever, ever, ever have to mean you are not a fan or any less of a fan.

Come With Us, for me, was one of those albums. I am the opposite of you Jack - I felt it lacked consistency, though I did grow to dig it (and like you there were some great stand out tracks I took to immediately). It did win me over and I am better for it, as someone who loves what the Chems do. I was only able to fully appreciate what Come With Us was trying to do as a whole once I stepped back and gave it a more objectionable ear - which is so hard when you're listening to your favorite band and you have certain ideas on how something is supposed to sound. And of course hearing the music played out live helped me open my ears and offer a fresh perspective. I can't help but interpret that album as a crossroads in the Chems' career. It's almost as though the Chems were standing on the meridian line of their musical past and their future.

I've been listening to the Chemical Brothers since "Dig Your Own Hole" in the early 90's. They have progressed immensely since then, and I am starting to enjoy some of the songs from their new album, but I have to say it is QUITE different from what I'm used it. I supposed Jeanie said it best when she said that you can't write the same album twice.

I suppose I enjoyed the heavenly sound of Come With Us's Star Guitar, Galaxy Bounce, and all the amazing psychedelic tracks that came out of that album. It was still quite different from the previous stuff, but held true..

My favorite from Dig Your Own Hole was "It doesn't matter" which had the most powerful baseline I've ever heard. Busted my dad's big speakers back in the day with that song! Thats when I fell in love with the chemical brothers!

I just hope that the next album is a bit more upbeat, and a bit less "commercial" with all these "Featuring this guy and that guy". The Salmon Dance track is AWESOME, but the lyrics kill the song for me. It's too ridiculous of a concept to even make me think seriously about the song. All the sounds are great, the voice, etc. But its the words that are just silly.

I've been a fan for a long time, and i will continue to be, I guess you can't always like EVERY song. Concidering most artists these days that have 1-2 good songs in a CD of 12, the chemical brothers having 90% of tracks be awesome is still the most talented artists of my time!

Love them.

I wouldnt exactly say that WATN sounds all too new. I think it sounds like a mashup of their past albums Surrender and Push The Button (my least favorite Chems albums prior to the release of WATN).

I agree that the collaborations are turning me off, I would rather hear more instrumental tracks.

And I completely agree about what you have to say about the Salmon Dance. I love that little instrumental hook they got going in the song. But, like you said, they killed the song with some rather dumb lyrics.

And finally, I also agree with you that "Come With Us" is my favorite Chemical Brothers album (along with my favorite album ever). And to describe the album for me, I'm going to steal a quote from Rolling Stone:

"The album title itself is a little ironic, though: The Chemical Brothers are patiently finessing their sound, paused by the side of the road and waiting for the rest of the world to catch up with their hyperkinetic, gorgeous beats."

Draek you do know Dig Your Own Hole didn't come out in the early 90's. ;)

I do personally enjoy the collaborations, probably as much as I enjoy the instrumental offerings - but that's my opinion. I like the vocal collabs on Exit Planet Dust thru We Are The Night. I get a lot out of both, some songs I like more than others, obviously. Songs like Battle Scars and The Pills Won't Help You Now, those songs struck a chord with me, and they mean a lot... All Rights Reversed I find to be brilliant production with intriguing vocals, overall I find it to be a kickin' tune.

I also like Salmon Dance. I find it amusing and it always takes me by surprise and puts a smile on my face. It's one thing to have opinions and not like a song for whatever reasons, but allegations of being ridiculous, or dumb - that kinda cuts like a knife. Because even though you guys don't mean to - it's sort of coming across as you're saying the Chems are dumb and/or ridiculous. Again not that you mean to, but... ouch. As for the Chems vocal collabs being a turn off - the Chems have always had vocal collaborations so I don't see how the vocal collabs on We Are The Night are a brand new and shocking concept. It's something they've always done (maybe I am being overly sensitive, I have just had a half a vocodin and am a little groggy at the moment, so my apologies for being nitpicky). Anyway, with We Are The Night you have a heavy, intense album and right in the middle there's a little something to offer a bit more light heartedness in the thick of all this intensity. I think it's good Tom and Ed have a sense of humor and feel confident in putting that on their album even though Tom has said Salmon Dance was likely to divide the camp. Maybe that's the marmite track, haha. Maybe that's why I have a soft spot for it. Hmmm.

Anyhow, that's enough negativity for one evening. I'm gonna go have a cigarette, sit on my balcony and see if I can catch some shooting stars from the meteor shower...

Really, just love what you have and hope something clicks with you the next time around, I guess.

Meh. I'm babbling.

I don't like everything Tom and Ed did. I maybe dont like about 10 %.

And i think the Salmon dance is wicked, BECAUSE it's a ridicoulus concept. I like ridicoulus things that dont make any sense. Hence why i am addicted to Family Guy :lol:

Meh x 3.

I am somewhat on the fence with this album.

There are many positive and negatives to the whole thing (as with any album). Overall, I am not a listener of lyrics. For me, the lyrics are just another piece of the puzzle melodically, and not really there for real deep meaning. Hell, you could put a fancy muzak track in there for the lyrics and I would be happy. Among these songs I place "We are the Night," "All Rights Reversed," and "the Pills won't help you now." … Hell, I think they did pretty much do that with "Seal" caue I can't understand a damn word! :)

One thing I do enjoy about this album is the "trancy" feel many of the songs have. There have been several times where I turn up the stereo and drift off to songs like Saturate, Burst Generator, and Das Spiegel. I would say depending on what album you started with really can alter which "chemical brothers" you like… the "big beat" chems, or the "laid back" chems. (... but then again "Where do I Begin" and "Lost in the K hole" are two of my favorite songs.) But that topic is discussed enough on this board as far as which "label" the chemical brothers should be braded with -- and as always, they really are all over the board in the electronic realm and it needs to be taken with a grain of salt with each album. Another group that I also feel does this variation of style (though not in the electronic arena) is Beck. Each album is almost completely different, but they all have their redeeming qualities. So I am not really complaining.

As far as Salmon Dance goes... When I first heard it, I was repulsed just cause it was so random and quirky. But then I got to thinking about it. The chemical brothers are artists just having fun. They have the fan base, they aren't really going to lose any by putting an odd, out of place song on a an album... so why not put something there just to do something different and appease themselves and not necessarily the fans. After I realized that, I listened to the song again and opened up to the fact that it was just a fluff song that was pretty much a joke, I was okay with it. Then I saw the video and all I could do was laugh. Brilliant!

I think your taking the Salmon Dance thing a little too seriously, Whirly.

And about the collaborations.... Yeah, they arent new. However, I feel that the collaborations, especially from the past two albums, sound forced. And truthfully, I perfer instrumentals from collaborations anyways, so I'm probably just being biased.

But I actually do enjoy alot of the Chemical Brothers collaborations, especially the earlier ones:

Setting Sun

Let Forever Be

Where Do I Begin (save it! I've learned to love it :P )

The State We're In

The Test

The Boxer

Hold Tight London

Get Yourself High

The Golden Path

Life Is Sweet

but you can't say "Hold Tight London" wasn't a great song... which was on one of the last two.

or "The Boxer" ... another goodie

... appearantly Bosco is eding at the same time I am.

( c: