Born in the Echoes [LP]

by The Chemical Brothers

Overview

An album that fades in -- grinding and beeping like a space shuttle returning to Earth -- Born in the Echoes is the first LP in five years from the Chemical Brothers. It's a journey back home for the big beat or stadium dance duo, just like that spaceship intro implies, and one with all the necessary mutations. The dark, otherworldly, and prog rock sounds that kept many away from their 2010 release Further are back, although here they're framed much more attractively. Inspiration, innovation, and a well-chosen group of guest vocalists are rolled out sensibly, schooling the current EDM crowd on how to craft an album while balancing the heavy songs. With the hallucinatory, interlude-like "Taste of Honey" giving way to the Cate Le Bon feature on the Meco-meets-Nico title track, this album ebbs and flows as if the '70s Pink Floyd hadn't ignored disco. Speaking of, "Under Neon Lights" with St. Vincent as a robot siren is either Studio 54 on shrooms or The Matrix on acid. As usual, none of it is too garish even with all the loudness and chaos, and some of it is quite gothy and dark, including "EML Ritual" with Ali Love helping execute a mainstream dance tune that coolly acknowledges the passed-on genre of "witch house." The veteran duo deliver the rocker "I'll See You There" in the pop culture-aware style of the Black Keys rather than old chums like Oasis or the Verve, and if that isn't Daft Punk's recent repping of the '70s being "borrowed" throughout the album, that's certainly the spirited sway of Future Islands influencing and driving the fantastic Beck feature "Wide Open." Add an appearance from the swagger master Q-Tip and Born in the Echoes is an excellent mash of familiar and vanguard, the very same formula that lifts all the duo's best albums above expectations. ~ David Jeffries

Product Details

Release Date:	10/06/2023
Label:	Astralwerks / Universal / Virgin Emi
UPC:	0602547275288
Rank:	38243

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Sometimes I Feel So Deserted
2. Go
3. Under Neon Lights
4. EML Ritual
5. I'll See You There
6. Just Bang

Disc 2

7. Reflextion
8. Taste of Honey
9. Born in the Echoes
10. Radiate
11. Wide Open

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Chemical Brothers   Primary Artist
Beck   Vocals
Q-Tip   Vocals
Mark Ralph   Bass
Seggs   Bass
St. Vincent   Guitar,Vocals
Colin Stetson   Saxophone
Ali Love   Vocals
Cate Le Bon   Vocals
Yolanda Quartey   Vocals (Background)
Daniel Pearce   Vocals
Alele Diane   Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

Blair Wells   Engineer
Bill Bissett   Composer
Ed Simons   Composer
Kamaal Fareed   Composer
Richard Adlam   Engineer
Colin Stetson   Composer
Ali Love   Composer
Tom Rowlands   Composer
Annie Clark   Composer
Cate Le Bon   Composer
Eric J. Dubowsky   Engineer
Moise Laporte   Composer
Hal Ritson   Engineer
Beck Hansen   Composer
Edmund Simons   Composer
Gloria Kaba   Assistant
Kenneth Bobien   Composer