Music Is My Weapon

The Chemical Brothers worked it out once again. I have nearly all of their albums; even the rare imported ones. There are usually songs I skip though, especially on LP's where the song lasts for ever. However, this album is different: Push the Button is wholely unskippable. Don't skip anything. Don't let your hand even hit the pause button until the whole album is done. Every song is great; every song makes you want to break the speedlimit like "Setting Sun" did waaaay back in the day.

Now, people have accused the genre of sounding redundant for years, and sometimes I agree (like I said, especially with the LP's). However, while contemporaries like the Prodigy and Fatboy Slim fall by the wayside, on their fifth studio album Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons sound positively reinvigorated, as they play with sharper, more focused songs, from the politically charged "Left Right" to the wide-screen "Close Your Eyes." It's epic stuff, particularly when A Tribe Called Quest rapper Q-Tip magically appears to give lead-off track "Galvanize" a vintage hip-hop kick. But because this is as much about the future as the past, the British duo also recruits Kele Okereke of underground punk-funk stars Bloc Party and the London vocal group The Magic Numbers to help push things forward.

As far as I'm concerned, they have reestablished themselves after 2002's Come With Us debacle.

Long story short: this is recommended listening.