On the surface, the most amazing thing about the Chemical Brothers in 2005 is that they’re still here. Having been tied in with a big beat scene that, by its very nature, was never destined to last for that long, they have emerged to remain standing tall while the dance movement crumbles around them.
All this while releasing a series of records, the majority of which were built on the flimsiest of ideas and motifs. For a band as seemingly unfashionable as this to score successive number ones is something to be lauded, although you wish that they’d succeeded with more complete records than ‘Hey Boy, Hey Girl’ and the rest. Push The Button, we’re promised, is a different kind of Chemical Brothers record but haven’t we heard that every time?
The good news is that on this occasion whoever ‘they’ are aren’t talking crap. ‘Galvanize’ has already done its job and raised our expectations, a record that mixes a rash of ideas from hip hop to bhangra. Thankfully it sets the standard for what follows rather than leading to disappointment. Tim Burgess aside (who provides a characteristically soulful turn on ‘The Boxer’), most of the guest vocalists are either relatively unknown, or in the case of Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke, about to become very famous indeed. All, however, are used to great effect.
Anwar Superstar provides a raging rap on the overtly political ‘Left, Right’, setting up a nice contrast with the dreamy ‘Hold Tight London’ and ‘Close Your Eyes’. On a couple of tracks they do slip into the old brainless beats routine but thankfully these are few and far between.
They may have made it this far on the bare minimum but at last the Chemical Brothers are showing what they’re really made of.