Hello,

My name is John and I just wanted to see what people thought of a Brotherhood review that I'd written and a Chemical Brothers interview. The links are below.

Cheers.

http://www.thequietu...emical-brothers

http://www.thequietu...tory-in-singles

I read the interview already, but in the review, you mention that the Chems hit a 'slump' with CWU and PTB!

'WHAT SLUMP?'

Real Chem fans never say that!

(The rest of the review was 50/50)

Hi John,

Not a badly written review at all and despite the otherwise daunting first paragraph, the review takes a nice turn for the positive!

One thing that is really starting to annoy me in general (not just your review) is that Brotherhood is NOT a singles collection. To the best of my knowledge it's really not marketed as such, and though Ed says Brotherhood is the Singles (from 93-2003) re-jigged, Brotherhood is still a Best Of. That's why, "tellingly" the single Song to the Siren as well as other singles don't appear on Brotherhood. Anyway...

Also inchem - I do have to disagree with your assessment on the Real Chems fan bit. ;) There's plenty of people that are fans that aren't fond of one song or album or another... It's been mentioned and proved that Come With Us received an lukewarm response in the wake of the uber-successful Surrender, especially here in the States. I readily admit that I was not a fan of this album when it first came out however as time went on, I found an intimacy with Come With Us that was very personal, and I grew to love the album. Come With Us overall and unfortunately, was given an otherwise drab response critically. Though the album had its fans and captivated some critics positively, the reviews and response just didn't manage to be on the same level as say Dig Your Own Hole or Surrender. In the end it's really just a matter of opinion, and what's done is done.

Going back to the Brotherhood review, Push The Button (though it was mentioned as being a slump but to a lesser extent) was a highly critically acclaimed album. I know the words 'commerical' and 'popular' don't go over well in a forum like this - but the fact is, plain and simple, Push The Button's commerical and critical success saw the Chemical Brothers rake in some awards and commission songs (which have been debated here ad nauseum), and see the boys over the aforementioned slump that was Come With Us. The ideas on Push The Button were, as Tom said repeatedly over a number of interviews, "fresh". They were different, there was a lot of experimentation going on and some daring choices were made (Left Right, for instance). Where Come With Us saw the Chems on the fence of their musica crossroad, Push The Button saw the boys over that fence and into new territory with a new perspective and a fresh approach which has been picked up by fans as well as critics. But again - the approach to listening to music is subjective and it's not really my criticism of the posted article as I think it was written honestly in the sense it had an opinionated slant. As for opinions, after what happened with Come With Us, and reading a couple of years ago about a brief conversation a member of this forum had with Ed (at Turnmills I believe) - I honestly think that if it Push The Button hadn't been received as well as it had, if it hadn't been successful both in the minds of fans and critics - then we might not be looking forward to the prospect of a new album right now...

brotherhood is being marketed as "the definitive singles collection". rather a bold and misleading tag.

You're right sneaker - at least the home page on this site got it right by calling this a Best Of!

I've seen so many written things alluding to this being a Singles release (including the US newsletter) that mentions it as being a Best Of as well as "difinitive" singles collection.

It really is small peanuts and I don't mean to make such a big deal out of it. It's just something that I find a little irksome. :lol:

I don't know why everyone is slamming Let Forever Be. The beat and melody is fine, good arrangement, lovin' the bassline. The vox are a bit cheesy, agreed.

Still don't know what's meant by 'how does it feel like to be a christening' or somethin'...

Come With Us is by far my favorite Chemical Brothers album, i don't know what the hell slump you're talking about, John.

Well, me neither. Did he talk with the Beatles and their Sgt. Peppers Lonley Hearts Club Band album? Those sitar and experimental sounds must have scared the shit out of ordinary yellow submarine fans as well.

far be it from me to be negative but both of those articles bite the big one for so many reasons.

the first 'interview' one is, im 90% positive, just a pastiche of a load of other interviews theyve done in the past.

as for the review, well everyone is entited to their opinion but you lose all credibility with the following sentence:

'everything to do with Phuture, Derrick May, Andrew Weatherall, Plump DJs and so on...'

spot the odd one out hahahaha

also i think youve got the jist of the ebw's a bit wrong - did you actually listen to them? 'The Eagle eared will spot that these are the bare bones of tracks like ‘It Began In Africa’ and ‘It Doesn’t Matter’' - - errm, bare bones? really? really? might want to check your detective work there louis!

and oh yeh, i watched the let forever be video today and even commented how it was one of the chems tracks that people didnt seem to dig, actually i wasnt so sure about it when i first heard it, but now actually i do think its a wicked bit of woozy-psychedelic-pop genius. fitting drums, great song, and wicked transcendental production. word.

Wow! Alot of forum members were receptive!

Afterthoughts: I agree that Brotherhood is not a singles collection. I am satisfied with the purchase and Disc 1 is now my commute CD and Disc 2 is my weekend listen.

Hmm, now on the 'Real Chem Fans' bit! I think it was rubbed off the wrong way. I just thought I was speaking for us forum members only, because people like you whirly and others I met here, are superhuge fans of the Chemical Brothers (just like me), and I just thought that none of us would ever think that one of their albums would be a 'slump'! That's what I meant when I said 'Real Chem Fans'! I don't care what the critics say! When I buy a Chem Cd, I already know there's some magazine review or some other media that has something to say about it on that same day, so I don't read it. After a couple of days later of listening to the CD, I then read the reviews. I do this to understand why and what reasons why they like or dislike the material i'm listening to.

I just don't want the media or any reviewers to dictate or tell me this is a 'Good' or a 'Bad' album before I buy a chem CD. I enjoy discovering music on my own and I don't feel that just because some of the demographics of fans or reviewers that think an album is a 'Slump' doesn't mean the same to me. I also heard of that 'lukewarm response' on CWU, as I was completely surprised it. It certainly didn't effect my listening pleasure, as CWU was 'breakthrough' to me! And you are right Whirly on the assessment part of the 'Real Chems Fan' bit, and not everybody agrees with me, as I did some exaggerating there. But I just felt (at the time being)that the Chems would never produce mediocre albums and that chem fans would never say anything bad about a few songs or an entire album.

I was just sticking up for the Bros :) Sorry if I got carried away OT!

After careful reading again...Review: Grade B!

i don't care how they market this one but come with us was EPIC! fuckin genius! the best of the best. i got in with it!

hehehe, no worries at all inchem! There's some longtime fans here who don't connect with certain songs or albums - and when people have called them on it and singled them out as not being a real fan or whatever... it can be... uncomfortable.

The written word is so powerful and suggestive - opinions shouldn't matter at the end of the day but sometimes it's hard not to let them get to you. I am the same. I got really upset at certain points reading some of the bad reviews Push The Button got. It didn't change my opinion on the album but I found those reviews to be irritating nontheless. It's the bias (in the reviews/article and from the individual perspective of the reader) getting in the way. Anyhow, the "slump" John mentioned in the article is a bit nebulous - I guess it could mean a commerical/critical slump as I pointed out, or it could mean something more personal to John.

John come back! We won't bite... that hard!

Calling CWU a slump and PtB "to a lesser extent" is just a absolutely preposterous statement. What an obnoxiously pretentious "review" and I was dubious about these links from the moment I saw the url. The interview was an enjoyable read but the review was absolute garbage. No tag for you!

CWU is and has always been a fans album. And by that I mean its only fans that really seem to appreciate it. Personally I think the title track and Hoops are still two of the Chems finest moments. Of course Star Guitar is a classic and It Begun in Africa is superb too. You could say the Chems hit a slump in terms of sales with CWU but not in creativity. Anybody that thinks the latter seriously doesn't understand the Chems music.

What the heck is a fans album??????????????????

Come With Us: one of my all time favorite albums.