i didn't really read any official reviews of the album or anything ('cause i prefer to form my own idea about the album before falling under the influences of others), and i don't know if someone will agree with my point of view, but anyway, these are some of the first impressions and thoguhts provoked by push the button:

first of all, i think there is a pretty strong political note to it that surprised me a bit at first, the chems as well as the rest of the world contributed to the anti-war movement, but some of the songs also seem to be dealing with issues such as racism (my personal impression), and religious fundamentalism. of course, it is most clearly underlined in the left, right song, that some of my friends hated 'cause it's so hip hop (they think, it does not correspond to the chemical brothers ideology, but what i always appreciated the most about the chems is their opennes to various influences. when you know who you are and what you are worth, you are not affraid of accepting different points of view, but actually, you are integrating them in your own personality, and that is what makes us all grow and move forward in life. and that is why the chemical brothers are still great.)

i didn't pay too much attention to the galvanize lyrics (i'm about to do so after i finish this post), but for my first association to it was racism. and it was amazing for me to listen to this song here in italy (that is where i live now), where people are still not used to having a lot of foreigners around, and where black people are not only a race, but also a social class.

believe, for me the song that has the greatest potential to become the next great hit, and possibly with a better success than galvanize, a very strong but simple alusion to religion (and especially in the contest of the current situation in the world and all the mess caused by the missunderstandings and misinterpretations of religion.

'i need you to believe in something' says that different religions do not create problems. but no belief at all is a big problem though. you can be an atheist and that's great as long as you have a little secularized sect formed in your head, because a person without a belief is a person withouth faith, without direction, without life.

close your eyes, a beautiful ballade, i see it at the end of a concert or a party, with the lights already on, and people slowly getting ready to go home. could be interpreted as a personal song, as well as in a more opened social context.

marvo ging. soooooooooooooooooooooo chemical!

the boxer. i have a feeling that im gonna start liking it but it still didnt hit me the way it should

hold tight london. surface to air. i still need to work on them :)

shake break bounce. when i first heard this song i recalled the terror i experienced when my american roomate took me to the hip hop club. not my favourite, although it has that little something, that little chemical spark...

come inside! great beautiful, probably the lightest song on the album, but soo cool. i love it



anyways, i'm sure that, even if some of the things that i said here make sense for someone else as well, the chems would not interpret none of the songs in the same way, and that they were not thinking and articulating in these terms when they were making the album.

'cause these are only words, and when you create music, you think music, not words.

Very nice, Miss K, there's some points you brought up that are good for discussion. :)



I've said it before and I'll gladly say it again, and that's I'm 100% supportive of the Chems putting Left Right on Push The Button. I see people are upset by this move, but I don't understand why people think Tom and Ed should be drones/sheeple not affected by the world around them. What really irks me are the people that think Left right is too much a diversion of the Chemical Brothers style. Come on, dig out Exit Planet Dust, give Not Another Drugstore a whirl, go back a couple of years and listen to Get Yourself High. I'm tired of reading here on this forum that the song is crap and a piece of trash. How insulting. Anyone that's listened to Exit Planet Dust can hear the hip hop influences, and anyone that's bothered reading about the Chems' past knows that rap and hip hop have always influenced what they do musically - to some degree. Good rap and hip hop (not the bootie bootie bling bling shit) has always been socially and politically aware. So it should come as no surprise that the Chems are influenced by the rap and hip hop dynamic.



I agree with you Miss K, what makes the Chems music unique is their openess to so many different types of music, and how it affects their own music.



Anyway. Rant over.



What I get out of Galvanize isn't so much a song about dealing with racism, but to me I feel it's a song that's about being yourself, being with people who will let you be who you are. Who cares what the people with their crooked stares and noses in the air think - just be who you are. It's a good message, a great start to a record.



Now onto Believe.

'i need you to believe in something' says that different religions do not create problems. but no belief at all is a big problem though. you can be an atheist and that's great as long as you have a little secularized sect formed in your head, because a person without a belief is a person withouth faith, without direction, without life.

This is where I may disagree with you to some extent. The dogma of religion, imho, has done little more than keep people in their place and has been the cause of great suffering around the world. I don't really care what religion it is we're talking about. I myself am proud of my religious heritage - I recognize some traditions because I think they are aligned with the core of who I am - but I choose not to subscribe to the dogma of the religion I was born into. I don't think I'm lost, without direction, or lacking faith, or somehow lacking life. I believe in something, yes, but it is much stronger and imo more spiritual than any religious doctrine and set of rules and regulations written by men. It is belief in myself, my husband, my son. I believe in them, and would have no direction without them, would have no faith without them , would have no life without them. Because I believe in something - and that is love. It's something you can see, feel, touch, and live by. And that has to account for something.



What I like about the song Believe is that it is wide open to interpretation, it says you should believe in something, anything - and that is where I agree with you. It's open enough to make your own conclusion, without being exclusive to any particular faith/ideas.



Well, that's it for now. I have to go to work! ;)

man, people, use old PTB threads and don't open up new ones for every new review!

i believe that this world be far better off if there were no religions at all. wurp!



oh...and Push The Button is fucking really good.

Thesouphead Escribi�:

i believe that this world be far better off if there were no religions at all. wurp!



oh...and Push The Button is fucking really good.

I'd like to see a pic of that!

I don't believe in anything, does that mean I'm a bad person? :x

Miss K Escribi�:

.... but no belief at all is a big problem though. you can be an atheist and that's great as long as you have a little secularized sect formed in your head, because a person without a belief is a person withouth faith, without direction, without life.

I think that could the other way. It seems to me that many religios people are just going in a direction that doesn't even exist. They spend their whole lives think about and preparing for the next life(heaven....72 virgins...all that). They don't even concider that this lif might be the only life.





Mark Twain

Einstein

Carl Sagan

Thomas Jefferson

George Carlin

Bill Maher

David Cross

Danny Elfman

Laim and Noel Gallagher

Abraham Lincolin

Robert Frost

Sigmund Freud







the above are atheist nd or agnostic for the most part. I think they have done pretty well with their lives.

Forrest J. Ackerman

Phillip Adams

Brandy Alexandre

Woody Allen

Shulamit Aloni

Thomas J. Altizer

Natalie Angier

Liv Arnesen

Madison Arnold

Peter William Atkins

Russell Baker

Iain M. Banks

Clive Barker

Dan Barker

MC Paul Barman

Dave Barry

Richard Bartle

Steve Benson

Ingmar Bergman

Bj�rk

Bill Blass



Jim Bohanan

Sir Herman Bondi

Pierre Boulez

T. Coraghessan Boyle

Nathaniel Branden

Marlon Brando

Richard Branson

Rodney Brooks

Andrew Brown

Peter Buck

Warren Buffett

John Byrne

Dean Cameron

George Carlin

John Carmack

Adam Carolla

John Carpenter

Asia Carrera

Fidel Castro

Dick Cavett

Stephen Chapman



Vic Chesnutt

Noam Chomsky

Mohammed Choukri

Chumbawamba

Paul and Patricia Churchland

Alexander Cockburn

John Conway

Alex Cox

Francis Crick

David Cronenberg

David Cross

Alan Cumming

Justin Currie

Ron Dakron

Julia Darling

William B. Davis

Richard Dawkins

Daniel Dennett

David Deutsch

Ani DiFranco



Micky Dolenz

Amanda Donohoe

Roddy Doyle

Paul Draper

Patrick Duffy

Dean Edell

Paul Edwards

Greg Egan

Barbara Ehrenreich

Paul Ehrlich

Albert Ellis

Warren Ellis

Harlan Ellison

Garth Ennis

Brian Eno

Diane Farr

David Feherty

Jules Feiffer

Larry Fessenden

Harvey Fierstein

Nuno Filipe



Filter

Bob Fingerman

Antony Flew

Larry Flynt

Dario Fo

Dave Foley

James Forman

Jodie Foster

John Fowles

Robin Lane Fox

Kinky Friedman

Janeane Garofalo

Bill Gates

Bob Geldof

Jack Germond

Ira Glass

Jean Luc Godard

Al Goldstein

Nadine Gordimer

Greg Graffin

Spalding Gray



Seth Green

Stephen Greenblatt

Rachel Griffiths

Joe Haldeman

Alan Hale

Kathleen Hanna

Harry Harrison

Nina Hartley

Roy Hattersley

James A. Haught

Bill Hayden

Judith Hayes

Nat Hentoff

Katharine Hepburn

Paul Hester

Christopher Hitchens

General Choi Hong-Hi

Nicholas Humphrey

Derek Humphry

Stephan Jenkins

Penn Jillette



Angelina Jolie

Neil Jordan

Joachim Kahl

Jonathan Katz

Kawaljeet Kaur

Ludovic Kennedy

Margot Kidder

Florence King

Neil Kinnock

W. P. Kinsella

Michael Kinsley

Melvin Konner

Frank Kozik

Kramer

Paul Krassner

Milan Kundera

Paul Kurtz

Ring Lardner Jr.

Mr. Lavanam

Richard Leakey

Alexander I. Lebed



Tom Lehrer

Mike Leigh

Stanislaw Lem

Gerda Lerner

Michael Lewis

Tom Leykis

John Lydon

John Malkovich

Barry Manilow

Shirley Manson

Michael Martin

Nick Mason

John McCarthy

Malachy McCourt

Ian McEwan

Todd McFarlane

Montana McGlynn

Sir Ian McKellen

Alexander McQueen

Jonathan Meades

Antonio Mendoza



Tom Metzger

Arthur Miller

Mike Mills

Marvin Minsky

Warren Mitchell

Momus

John Money

Hans Moravec

Max More

Henry Morgentaler

Desmond Morris

James Morrow

John Mortimer

Frank Mullen

Taslima Nasrin

Ramendra Nath

Ted Nelson

Randy Newman

Mike Nichols

Jack Nicholson

Kai Nielsen



Oscar Niemeyer

Robert Nozick

Gary Numan

Ronald Numbers

Bob Odenkirk

Camille Paglia

Andy Partridge

Robert Patrick

Mark Pauline

Leonard Peikoff

Paul Pfalzner

Julia Phillips

Ferdinand Piech

Katha Pollitt

Paula Poundstone

Vladimir Pozner

Terry Pratchett

Paul Provenza

Ted Rall

James Randi



Ron Reagan Jr.

Christopher Reeve

Rick Reynolds

Griff Rhys-Jones

Mordecai Richler

Matt Ridley

Brian Ritchie

Brad Roberts

Chris Robinson

Neil Rogers

Richard Rorty

Arundhati Roy

Jane Rule

Salman Rushdie

Mona Sahlin

Sebasti�o Salgado

Robert Sapolsky

Jos� Saramago

Pamela Sargent

John Sayles

Eugenie Scott



Captain Sensible

Nick Seymour

Robert I. Sherman

Michael Shermer

Claude Simon

Slayer

J.J.C. Smart

George H. Smith

Robert Smith

Lee Smolin

Steven Soderbergh

Ed Sorel

Annika S�renstam

George Soros

Richard Stallman

Peter Steele

Bruce Sterling

Howard Stern

J. Michael Straczynski

Ken Stringfellow

Donald Sutherland



Julia Sweeney

Matthew Sweet

Teller

Studs Terkel

Tool

Linus Torvalds

Ted Turner

Eddie Vedder

Gore Vidal

Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Sarah Vowell

Matt Wagner

Annika Walter

James Watson

Steven Weinberg

Joss Whedon

Harland Williams

Ian Wilmut

Lewis Wolpert

Steve Wozniak

Bruce Wright



Zarkov

Nick Zedd

for me its just the music, not the message.. however, the reason I dont like left/right isnt so much because of the message, but because of the annoying rapper's voice, and also i think it is always a bad thing to go political in music, especially in this time when everything is world politics...

it just becomes annoying in the same way that that eminem track about the war is annoying.



i prefer the more instrumental tunes of TCB such as loops of fury or acid children, they are truly timeless!

I looooooooove the politics.... seriously, they could have a single Snare noise and someone saying 'Fuck George Bush!' over and over again and I'd buy it.... there's a bunch of bands I listen to that I wouldn't if it weren't for their politics... Chumbawumba, Snog, Consolidated.....

toomuch'stash Escribi�:

I looooooooove the politics.... seriously, they could have a single Snare noise and someone saying 'Fuck George Bush!' over and over again and I'd buy it.... there's a bunch of bands I listen to that I wouldn't if it weren't for their politics... Chumbawumba, Snog, Consolidated.....

i agree 100%







...adnd shouldn't this be the time when artists speak out on a political level? ....when the world is in a political tornado of destruction and chaos.

I think i've mentioned this before, but this guy made this song that was George Bush saying words from A-Z. It must have takes AGES!

foulmouth Escribi�:

for me its just the music, not the message.. however, the reason I dont like left/right isnt so much because of the message, but because of the annoying rapper's voice, and also i think it is always a bad thing to go political in music, especially in this time when everything is world politics...

it just becomes annoying in the same way that that eminem track about the war is annoying.

sure, 'cause eminem doesnt know what the f. he's talking about, he s trying to build his style (and, oh, is it working well for the masses or what?!), just by being a rebel. i m pretty sure he doesn't know shit about war or politics or whatever. he s just a rebel and it works great with teenagers. but then you grow up

and your reference on how the chems should not talk about war and politics 'cause there is so much politics in the world, seriously it pisses me off....

you can choose to ignore the war if it does not directly involve you, sure. but what about people whose friends and families are dying every day? don't you think someone, no, actually, don't you think everyone should stand up against that.

once again, chems, well done with the left right song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and i hate hip hop, btw

but they couldn't have chosen a better music genre for that particular song

anyway, i don't want to get too political here...

tnx for the list of all the great atheists in our history, but i can assure you that all of them strongly believed in something, so you missed my point. or you just like counter-arguments.

and i am not religious in a conventional way.

i just believe 'in something' strong enough to prefer not to call myself an atheist, which does not mean that i wouldn't agree with most declared atheist on their opinions regarding god and all that. anyway.

oh, and whirlygirl, tnx for underlining that part where i said that 'different religions don't create problems'. that s not what i meant, you were right, i didn't express myself well.

religion itself does not create problems, if you interpret it well. it's the misinterpretation of religious scripts that creates most of the today's problems (the religious fundamentalists, and it's not only the muslims, you have christian fundamentalism as well that's being created as a counter-force to the islamic one. i spoke to some people who actually are us.soldiers in iraq, and honestly, their stories scared me, they were talking about christianity with the same insanity i would think worst islamic fundamentalists have in mind. and i am not talking against any religion here, i m just saying there is people who will take it to extrems and make a mess, no matter if they see themselves as christians jews atheists or muslims.)

anyway, tnx once again

oh, and foulmouth, guess what, i recently spoke to a guy from kosovo, he's 21. when he was in high school, he'd sit home and watch tv to see how many people he knows died that day. cousins, neighbours, guy from the supermarket, friend from elementary school he shared a desk with...

...and to a guy from US, 20, who had just got back to the base in italy after a few months as a soldier in iraq. he saw so much shit that he'll never be the same again. did i say he was 20 years old?

but, hey, let's not talk about politics it's boring, everyone s talking about it, right?

Miss K Escribi�:

foulmouth Escribi�:

for me its just the music, not the message.. however, the reason I dont like left/right isnt so much because of the message, but because of the annoying rapper's voice, and also i think it is always a bad thing to go political in music, especially in this time when everything is world politics...

it just becomes annoying in the same way that that eminem track about the war is annoying.

sure, 'cause eminem doesnt know what the f. he's talking about, he s trying to build his style (and, oh, is it working well for the masses or what?!), just by being a rebel. i m pretty sure he doesn't know shit about war or politics or whatever. he s just a rebel and it works great with teenagers. but then you grow up

and your reference on how the chems should not talk about war and politics 'cause there is so much politics in the world, seriously it pisses me off....

you can choose to ignore the war if it does not directly involve you, sure. but what about people whose friends and families are dying every day? don't you think someone, no, actually, don't you think everyone should stand up against that.

once again, chems, well done with the left right song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and i hate hip hop, btw

but they couldn't have chosen a better music genre for that particular song

anyway, i don't want to get too political here...

Actually, Eminem had said over and over again that he wouldn't get political, ever.... when the Marshal Mathers LP came out, he said he didn't vote, and didn't think anyone should, but then the incredible shit storm that GWB had created forced him to take a position, same way it did for the Chems. I'm pretty sure that taking a position against Bush actually hurt Eminem more than it helped him. I mean, really, when you write songs about cutting your wife's throat and taking your daugther with you to dump her in the ocean, how much more of a rebel do you need to be?

Miss K Escribi�:

oh, and foulmouth, guess what, i recently spoke to a guy from kosovo, he's 21. when he was in high school, he'd sit home and watch tv to see how many people he knows died that day. cousins, neighbours, guy from the supermarket, friend from elementary school he shared a desk with...

...and to a guy from US, 20, who had just got back to the base in italy after a few months as a soldier in iraq. he saw so much shit that he'll never be the same again. did i say he was 20 years old?

but, hey, let's not talk about politics it's boring, everyone s talking about it, right?

no no, I love politics... I mean, how many times can you have the 'I LIEK PUSH THE BUTTON! NO! PUSH THE BUTTON SUCKS!' conversation?

Miss K Escribi�:

close your eyes, a beautiful ballade, i see it at the end of a concert or a party, with the lights already on, and people slowly getting ready to go home.

Hi Miss K, i welcome you to the board!



That's what i was thinking all the time

Boy with the Golden Eyes Escribi�:

man, people, use old PTB threads and don't open up new ones for every new review!

ooh come on Boy, be kind to a nice Lady! She's new so it really doesn't matter . . .