Title:Come With Us By: Chemical Brothers Released by: Astralwerks Released on: 1/29/2002 Rating (out of 10): 4 Date: 02/06/2002
Another Sorry Chapter In the History Of Fratboy Electronica
Chemical Brothers (Tom Rolands and Ed Simons) burst on the electronica scene in the mid-90s with the classic LPs Exit Planet Dust and Dig Your Own Hole. Fusing the dance genres of trance, house, hip-hop, techno, and ambient, they were part of a group of artists including Fatboy Slim and Bentley Rhythm Ace who essentially invented the “big beat” genre of electronica—a more commercial form of electronica combining elements of all the above-mentioned genres. Big beat at its best is characterized by clever samples and bombastic rolling beats and basslines.
Unfortunately, most big beat is pure hogwash, and the majority of real dance music purists consider it to be somewhat of a watered-down, bastardized form of electronica created for the commercial dancefloor needs of the fratboy set. Chemical Brothers are the one big beat act that has kept their edginess, and with it, a vestige of their underground credibility. They are part of a growing number of electronica acts (along with Orbital, Underworld, and Basement Jaxx) who have managed to sell a lot of CDs in the U.S. without having to kiss corporate ass and sell out to “the man.” And that’s a good thing.
Come With Us is their fifth album, and their first in two years after an extensive and exhausting period of worldwide touring. The opening track, which is the title track, is the kind of bombastic nonsense that gives big beat a bad name. With no hooks, catchy beats, or symmetry whatsoever, it’s just a bunch of garbled noise. Things improve drastically with “It Began In Africa,” a song with tribal house beats that sounds like Daft Punk at their very best. The party continues with “Galaxy Bounce,” a disco/funk track that would make even U.K. disco/house luminary Joey Negro (Dave Lee) proud.
Chemical Brothers’ strength is making good semi-underground house music and songs like “Galaxy Bounce” with a funky breakbeat edge. Unfortunately, after the two above-mentioned standout tracks, things fall apart very quickly as the Brothers start trying to appease the Fatboy Slim-loving fratboy set as well as fans of bland radio pop music. “Star Guitar” is as generic a tech/house song you’ll ever hear and certainly won’t be showing up in Derrick Carter’s DJ sets any time soon. “Hoops” is an anti-electronica artsy failure that sounds like Stereolab on a bad quaaludes trip. “My Elastic Eye” is more big beat nonsense/Fatboy Slim emulation.
Things fall completely apart with “The State We’re In,” a moody and ethereal failure with vocals by Beth Orton that seems aimed right at the Sarah McLachlan/Enya set. “Denmark” is a generic, useless house tune guaranteed to clear any jumping dancefloor within 30 seconds, while “Pioneer Skies” is a throwaway track that seems to include a combination of harmonica and bagpipe sounds. Finally, “The Pipe” sounds like weak arena rock and doesn’t fit with the rest of the songs on a CD that already don’t seem to fit very well with one another.
In conclusion, Come With Us has two great songs guaranteed to please clubbers and home-listeners alike and a whole lot of filler that isn’t nearly commercial or hooky enough to please the pop crowd and that is simply too generic and unimpressive to please the underground crowd. Chemical Brothers are big beat album artists who would be house music singles artists if it wasn’t for the infinitely larger piles of money to be made from making heavily promoted big beat albums. They seem to be just about out of ideas, however maybe next time they will do a better job of sticking with their strengths and avoiding their glaring weaknesses.
