Chemical Brothers - Come With Us

Come With Us on this review of the latest release from one of the greatest electronic duos in existence, The Chemical Brothers. Forget everything you know about electronic music and erase all those Moby songs you heard on the radio from your head and prepare yourself for something completely different. So that was a good setup to this review right? It should have you intrigued and ready to see what I have to say about this album. Well to be honest, when I first dropped Come With Us in the changer I was disappointed. I was so impressed by the Brother's last release, Surrender, that I was hoping for more of the same. Turns out at the time I didn't really understand what they were all about. You see the Chemical Brothers have always been about taking their music in a new direction. Doing the unexpected and straying from what's "in" at the time. We have become so accustomed to hearing pop electronic music from the likes of Moby and BT that we forgot what true dance music is all about, the beat. On Come With Us, the Chemical Brothers once again change direction from their last release which was a little more accessible to the mainstream crowd, and made a record that is better suited for the dance floor. Lush beats and samples are thrown with such accuracy that you begin to find it hard to sit still and feel like you need to be doing something, anything, just moving. The first single of the record, "Star Guitar", was tested out by being distributed to DJs to try out in their sets. It's huge success in the clubs should have been a sign to us that Come With Us was going to take us to the dance floor. This album has gotten mixed reviews from the press, and think this is due to the fact that a lot of people don't take the time to understand where The Chemical Brothers are coming from. To really appreciate a record you have to understand what the band is trying to do. For instance, if you listen to Pennywise expecting another Blink 182, you are going to be disappointed. Along the same lines, if you listen to Come With Us expecting a Moby record, or even another Surrender, then you are going to be disappointed. If you approach it with an open mind and know that the Brothers are going for a more dance-oriented sound, then I think you will be impressed. I give this album 4.25 manstlye points. I know some people will disagree with me, but I feel that the Chemical Brothers created a really great record, and once again were successful at re-inventing their sound, thus staying ahead of the pack. [www.thechemicalbrothers.com]