The Chemical Brothers - For That Beautiful Feeling - The Singles, Reviewed

The Chemical Brothers - For That Beautiful Feeling - The Singles, Reviewed

Starting out in 1989 as The Dust Brothers before rebranding in 1995, The Chemical Brothers are one of the biggest and best loved names in the big beat scene, along with other artists like The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, and Apollo 440. While maybe not my personal favourite in the genre, they certainly are a great introduction, combining expectantly huge, thumping, danceable beats, catchy melodies and eclectic samples to great effect, with the hits like ‘Block Rockin Beats’, ‘Hey Girl, Hey Boy’ and ‘Galvanise’ to show for it. Now, 4 years after their well received ‘No Geography’ album, Ed and Tom are back with their brand new record ‘For That Beautiful Feeling’, releasing on 8th September. So let’s get sunk into these singles, shall we?

Live Again (Ft. Halo Maud)

Starting out with a muffled, funky, Daft Punk style beat and odd, soulful vocal chops, quickly you start to hear the washes of anthemic, psychedelic synths slowly fading in, like sun over the horizon. As a short prelude to the beat drop, and in amongst the chaos of phasing keyboards, guest vocalist Halo Maud delivers a relatively short but effective verse, her distinctive and subtly melancholic, yet light and airy voice acting as the perfect graceful flourish on top of the thumping beats that follow, which are just a dose of classic house, the pumping kicks providing a effective, high energy, propulsive bass while the subtly metallic hi-hats and classic claps add the welcome funk and nuance. Then, when walls of morphing bass enter the picture, they have a really cool and dystopian sound to them, which Halo’s graceful vocals weave around really effectively, and the washes of subtle atmospheres and effects that wash over the second verse and chorus, while a little distorted and shrill at points, are mostly a pretty decent compliment. The bridge on this song is fantastic too, the funky beat from the intro combined with these swirling washes of chiptune synths and joined by some really sick, organic sounding bass, it works really great as a build up, although the additional string synths were maybe unnecessary. So aside from a few minor sonic skirmishes, this was overall a very effective, funky, anthemic, and psychedelic bit of house.

No Reason

While this track is still decent, I’m probably not as enthusiastic about it as I was the previous track. To start, the intro with the skittering percussion, dramatic, tense synth strings and bubbling acid bass sounds really cool, and as much as I really like the funky electric bassline that follows, the stop-start style of the drums I find kind of annoying, perhaps because I think it unnecessarily drags out the build up. The beat when is does come in certainly has a decent, tight house groove to it, with some nice flourishes coming from the hand claps and phased effects, but to me, perhaps because it is so tight, it can feel a little stilted, at least in the verse portions. Melodically it’s also a bit of a tale of two sides. The bright, hazy synth stabs that come in sound absolutely classic, bright and euphoric on the chorus, just as rave stabs should be in my eyes, but while there are some decent, resonant bass effects in the second “pre-chorus”, the acid bass that follows it I should like, but the sound quality is a bit rough and lo-fi, making it fit in the mix a little strangely. Additionally, I’m not a big fan of the spoken vocal samples on the chorus. To me, making use of spoken vocals is a risky business, because it really is a roulette as to whether it works effectively, or sticks out like a bit of an auditory sore thumb, and I’m sad to say this song does kind of fall into the latter category. Overall it’s not a bad track, it’s still pretty infectious with some nice leads and decently funky beats, but it’s definitely a step down from ‘Live Again’, and I’m not sure but I may honestly like the non-album b-side ‘All Of A Sudden’ a bit more than this.

Skipping Like A Stone (Ft. Beck)

This one does admittedly feel pretty similar in sound and feel to ‘Live Again’, but at least in my mind that’s certainly not a bad thing. The way the ghostly pads and etheral vocal chops slowly build up with the percussion flourishes into a punchy, strutting disco beat works really well to give the track that perfect mix of heavenly atmosphere and danceable momentum, which they build on very well with extra touches of percussion and various effects. When the disco beat seamlessly transitions into a classic four-on-the-floor groove in the chorus, that also makes for a very enjoyable moment. Admittedly though, as much as the rhythmic base of the track is decent, aside from the ethereal pads in the intro and throughout, a lot of the noisier, glitchier synth sounds and air raid siren like effects the track offers up seems to be a little at odds with its generally euphoric vibe, and makes at points for a quite odd, and sometimes distracting combination. That said, some of these melodies certainly sound cool in isolation, particularly the glitchier passages around 3:45, but just in the context of everything else going on they can feel a bit odd. On the upside, Beck’s feature is certainly a highlight. He seems to be very good at utilising both his infectiously catchy lower-mid register on the chorus, as well as his more graceful falsetto tones throughout the rest of the track, both of which work very well in their relative context to effectively complement the Brothers’ musical backdrop. So overall I’d say while this isn’t a perfect track on account of some of the more incongruous melodic ideas at play, the rest of the beats and the vocals, and indeed a handful of the other various keyboard sounds, make this a pretty enjoyable piece of modern, retro-tinged dance-pop.

When thinking about album expectations, no, these singles weren’t all exactly roaring successes, but despite that, from what I can see I reckon we’re still in for a pretty bloody solid album from the Chems, bringing that retro rave sound back again, revitalised and fresh, even if I might not love all of it. Let me tell you, quality albums from old-school dance acts are sadly a relative rarity, so as long as this album is pretty damn decent, maybe in the 7-8/10 range, if not more (which indications would confirm), I’ll be happy.