The Chemical Brothers

[Champiness]

I just realised something... I allways knew that they are there, I allways knew that everybody says they are awsome and i allways knew that their live shows are called to be amazing. And i have no clue why i never checked them out! Wow... So i just bought "Don`t Think", and when im back home in a week Ill watch and listen to this ****, cause what i saw and hear on youtube was mindblowing. Any suggestions how to go on after that? I mean which album to listen first? Or special songs? Cause since they got 7 albums (from what ive read) i dont really know where to start

All their albums are great in different ways; if you want to be wowed right out of the gate I'd recommend you start with Dig Your Own Hole as it's generally regarded as the "classic" Chems album. From there you could go just about anywhere.
- Exit Planet Dust is their grimy, spaced-out debut, and the home of live favorite Chemical Beats.
- Surrender has the largest number of hit singles (Hey Boy Hey Girl, Let Forever Be, Out Of Control) along with several phenomenal album tracks (particularly The Sunshine Underground).
- Come With Us is my personal favorite. I'd say it's their most "representative" album because it's got a little bit of everything you can expect from their style: explosive space-disco (the title track), some slower, off-kilter funk tracks (Galaxy Bounce, Hoops), all-out, ecstatic dance music (It Began In Afrika, Star Guitar), spacey psychedelic tracks (The State We're In, Pioneer Skies), and their signature album-closing epic (The Test). If you were going to start with any other album than Dig Your Own Hole, I would recommend this one.
- Push The Button is, strictly-speaking, their most "commercial" album. A lot of collabs with big-name artists, some more noticeable rock and hip-hop influences, and of course the larger-than life hit single (Galvanize). That's not a knock on its quality, though: roughly half the album is fun and playful, while the other half is mellow and introspective. The latter half is home to two of their most beautiful songs (the ethereal tribal-shoegaze of Hold Tight London and live favorite Surface To Air).
- We Are The Night is one of their more overlooked albums, mostly because the two singles taken from it were a slightly generic party track (Do It Again, with Ali Love of "Civilization" fame on vocals) and an eccentric Fatlip collab that bordered on a novelty song (The Salmon Dance). Beyond that, though, it's a surprisingly varied record. The title track is an energizing Krautrock-dance hybrid with samples from experimental spoken-word poetry, there's a surprisingly-ominous Klaxons collab (All Rights Reversed, which went down like a storm live), and Battle Scars borders on folk music. Also not to be missed is closer The Pills Won't Help You Now, which switches from a glazed-over, heartbreaking acoustic number into something truly amazing halfway through.
- Further is their most recent album and, as such, the one which is best-represented on Don't Think. It's fortunate that they picked the Further tour to do a live film, though, because it's unlikely that material this out-there will be making many return appearances in later setlists. It's an album for the Chems diehards, and it spans all their best styles: psychedelic epics (opener Escape Velocity, currently their longest song), electronics-heavy barnstormers (Horse Power and iTunes bonus track Don't Think, which lent its name to the concert film and is one of my all-time favorites by them), moody atmospheric tracks (Snow, K+D+B), and some euphoric highs (Another World, Swoon). There's also an accompanying movie, and while it's no Interstella, it's certainly impressive, and doubles as the visuals for their live performances of the songs.

If you're looking solely to prepare yourself for Don't Think, here's all their albums along with how well-represented they are in the setlist from that night at Fuji Rock:
Exit Planet Dust: 3 (Chemical Beats, Three Little Birdies Down Beats as an interlude, Leave Home w/Galvanize)
Dig Your Own Hole: 2 (Setting Sun, Block Rockin' Beats)
Surrender: 2 (Hey Boy Hey Girl, Out Of Control)
Come With Us: 1 (Star Guitar)
Push The Button: 2 (Believe, Galvanize w/Leave Home)
We Are The Night: 2 (Do It Again, Saturate)
Further: 5 (Another World, Horse Power, Swoon, Don't Think, Escape Velocity)

[gugenheimas]

All their albums are great in different ways; if you want to be wowed right out of the gate I'd recommend you start with Dig Your Own Hole as it's generally regarded as the "classic" Chems album. From there you could go just about anywhere.
- Exit Planet Dust is their grimy, spaced-out debut, and the home of live favorite Chemical Beats.
- Surrender has the largest number of hit singles (Hey Boy Hey Girl, Let Forever Be, Out Of Control) along with several phenomenal album tracks (particularly The Sunshine Underground).
- Come With Us is my personal favorite. I'd say it's their most "representative" album because it's got a little bit of everything you can expect from their style: explosive space-disco (the title track), some slower, off-kilter funk tracks (Galaxy Bounce, Hoops), all-out, ecstatic dance music (It Began In Afrika, Star Guitar), spacey psychedelic tracks (The State We're In, Pioneer Skies), and their signature album-closing epic (The Test). If you were going to start with any other album than Dig Your Own Hole, I would recommend this one.
- Push The Button is, strictly-speaking, their most "commercial" album. A lot of collabs with big-name artists, some more noticeable rock and hip-hop influences, and of course the larger-than life hit single (Galvanize). That's not a knock on its quality, though: roughly half the album is fun and playful, while the other half is mellow and introspective. The latter half is home to two of their most beautiful songs (the ethereal tribal-shoegaze of Hold Tight London and live favorite Surface To Air).
- We Are The Night is one of their more overlooked albums, mostly because the two singles taken from it were a slightly generic party track (Do It Again, with Ali Love of "Civilization" fame on vocals) and an eccentric Fatlip collab that bordered on a novelty song (The Salmon Dance). Beyond that, though, it's a surprisingly varied record. The title track is an energizing Krautrock-dance hybrid with samples from experimental spoken-word poetry, there's a surprisingly-ominous Klaxons collab (All Rights Reversed, which went down like a storm live), and Battle Scars borders on folk music. Also not to be missed is closer The Pills Won't Help You Now, which switches from a glazed-over, heartbreaking acoustic number into something truly amazing halfway through.
- Further is their most recent album and, as such, the one which is best-represented on Don't Think. It's fortunate that they picked the Further tour to do a live film, though, because it's unlikely that material this out-there will be making many return appearances in later setlists. It's an album for the Chems diehards, and it spans all their best styles: psychedelic epics (opener Escape Velocity, currently their longest song), electronics-heavy barnstormers (Horse Power and iTunes bonus track Don't Think, which lent its name to the concert film and is one of my all-time favorites by them), moody atmospheric tracks (Snow, K+D+B), and some euphoric highs (Another World, Swoon). There's also an accompanying movie, and while it's no Interstella, it's certainly impressive, and doubles as the visuals for their live performances of the songs.

If you're looking solely to prepare yourself for Don't Think, here's all their albums along with how well-represented they are in the setlist from that night at Fuji Rock:
Exit Planet Dust: 3 (Chemical Beats, Three Little Birdies Down Beats as an interlude, Leave Home w/Galvanize)
Dig Your Own Hole: 2 (Setting Sun, Block Rockin' Beats)
Surrender: 2 (Hey Boy Hey Girl, Out Of Control)
Come With Us: 1 (Star Guitar)
Push The Button: 2 (Believe, Galvanize w/Leave Home)
We Are The Night: 2 (Do It Again, Saturate)
Further: 5 (Another World, Horse Power, Swoon, Don't Think, Escape Velocity)

wow, thats a review

[gugenheimas]

[Boob Ross]

First of all THANKS for all the information! So I first of all listened the whole Don't Think show (will watch the DVD tomorrow) and it was really great. A bit overwhelming since there are so many tracks in there I didn't know, but still fantastic. One can really hear that there is much live done stuff in there (I'll find out about that more when I know all the original tracks). Definitely a great show, i haven't get blown away by something like this since i listened to alive 07 for the first time. I really love this style, which kinda drifts into some psychedelic mood. Impressive, the brothers got a new fan!

[DJ_Sam_909]

What the hell? I didn't even hear about the Olympics thing. I'm downloading Velodrome as we speak. Just heard a preview on youtube and it sounds just... just awesome.

[needlessnoise]

First of all THANKS for all the information! So I first of all listened the whole Don't Think show (will watch the DVD tomorrow) and it was really great. A bit overwhelming since there are so many tracks in there I didn't know, but still fantastic. One can really hear that there is much live done stuff in there (I'll find out about that more when I know all the original tracks). Definitely a great show, i haven't get blown away by something like this since i listened to alive 07 for the first time. I really love this style, which kinda drifts into some psychedelic mood. Impressive, the brothers got a new fan!

Dudebro, the DVD is the actual ****. Seriously, the visuals blew my mind. More so than the alive 2007 visuals, to be honest.

[Boob Ross]

Dudebro, the DVD is the actual ****. Seriously, the visuals blew my mind. More so than the alive 2007 visuals, to be honest.

Agreed to that. Mindblowing ****, i was done when the 15 huge horse was running over the screen. And yea, even beats the visual part of alive for me (even if its not as revolutionary).

[daftmau513]

Yea i went to go see that at the cinema when it was shown for the one night only....BEST...EXPERIENCE......EVAR!! It's up to the standards of Alive 2007 as it takes you on a Thrilling and emotional Adventure as well as a musical one. Plus nothing beats "Leave Home" and "Chemical Beats", best work they have ever done alongside the entire "Surrender" album.

[Boob Ross]

I listened to some Tracks now with Spotify (don't worry I'll buy the vinyls! Files are not the same!) and after 2 days of nonstop Chemical brothers I liked the style "We are the night" most. But all albums got some unique sound in them, and im in love with this. Even the older albums sound so fresh and new to me they could just have been released.

Edit: Something else which is interesting: From all reviews I can't really find a "favourite" album of all time. Like daft punks Discovery, which is allways named as their "best" release. With the Chem brothers its seems to be pretty subjective which album is the personal favourite. Do you know what I want to say?

[daftmau513]

Agreed on the great quality of their older releases, Vinyl the best, unfortunately i only have a couple of Roule releases. I'm more for their Big Beat style of there first two albums, the third album was OK, past that I lost interest except for a few trax on Further and their newest single is.... yet to grow on me. Please tell me youre thoughts on their albums/trax