One record at a time: 49. The Chemical Brothers - Born In The Echoes

This album came out at a time when I made the momentous decision to stop buying CDs and concentrate on vinyl and digital files. Therefore "Born In The Echoes" is the first album by The Chemical Brothers that I don't own on CD. I still feel nervous about this; its almost as if I don't really own it without a shiny silver silver disc to prove it. 

Whilst the vinyl here seems to have eleven tracks, the digital version on my PC has two additional songs and two extended mixes. I'm not sure if the download is the one that came with the album or if it was acquired from, ahem, 'another source'.

I've seen people on the internet describing this record as sounding "nothing like a Chemical Brothers album", whilst others go as far as branding it their worst work. Conversely you can also find praise for the typical nineties big beat sound of tracks such as "I'll See You There" and "A Taste of Honey" and the album in general.

The dichotomy of opinion on the album is illustrated quite well by the track "Wide Open". This collaboration with Beck is rightly lauded as the best song on the album, but it is also criticised for being 'pop' and not conforming to the typical Chemical Brothers sound. Seems you just can't win.

Personally I like a lot of what this album has to offer. The afore mentioned "Wide Open" is indeed the best track on here, but "EML Ritual", "Go" and "Sometimes I Feel So Deserted" are also great tracks. "Reflexion" revives The Chemicals love of an really annoying synth riff (à la "Swoon") but they just about get away with it.

This album has a more 'electronic' feel and I really like that. The more typical nineties sounding tracks on this album are probably the weakest as they are put into such stark contrast by the superlative "Wide Open". The Chemical Brothers probably took big beat to some kind of zenith in the late nineties and I really don't need another "Block Rockin' Beats". However, I do need another "Wide Open" and I for one hope that there will be another Beck collaboration one day. 4/5