For That Beautiful Feeling (XDUST12)

[Heads]

https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/music/the-chemical-brothers-for-that-beautiful-feeling-album-review-b1105333.html

A nice 5 star review.

[Wolkenkrabber]

my own review. ..11/10 stars. I now want to become the album.

Oh is it review time? TL;DR? 3.5 to 4 stars from me. It's not perfect, but it's good.

Verbose review under spoiler tags.

FTBF verbose review

INTRO
Simply a short prequel of the album's title track. The opening "bookend" to the album. This then segues into...

LIVE AGAIN
Yep it's the version we know, nothing new to report here. I would still like a more traditional song structure, but as with the title track (more on that later), there seems to be an "artistic" intention here. Perhaps this is why we have the modern art images to go with this release; it's not about following conventional rules of structure.

This then segues into

NO REASON
But the segue is "broken" and there's a big gap. Rough Trade seem to be playing digital files of the album and their player/software isn't smoothly transitioning the tracks.
We all know No Reason; it's funky, it's catchy it's the "lead single".

No Reason segues with some big drums into

GOODBYE
- the track FKA Big Beat Space Gospel. But here we no longer have the "gospel" according to Jesse Jackson.
The song we get (whether the original version by Teresa Harris or this cover version) doesn't feel like a complete song. No clear verse/chorus structure to my mind. But nontheless it's a lovely thing with its big beats and big bassy-y synths. That bass vibrates from the Bowers & Wilkins speakers through my head and down to my feet (I was parked under a speaker). I think I can hear a little vocal tribute to Josh Wink's Higher State Of Consciousness floating around too.
Comparing this to the original Teresa Harris "Good bye" track - it's such a vast improvement, almost unrecognisable. Kudos to Tom/Chems for seeing the potential here. I just wish this album version was as long as the DJ version.

FOUNTAINS
Ok this one is the "curveball" of the album. At first I wondered if they had changed the record by accident. Initially it sounds like a cross between Tom Tom Club and... um, Destiny's Child(?).
A jerky, pop-y thing with falsetto vocals (oh it's Tom!) and funky guitar.
The line "inside your hands" seems to get repeated a lot, and then we get some pseudo-Indian synth sounds a la Charanjit Singh (RIP).  Well there's nothing wrong with a bit of variety but I'm just not sure that this track does it for me. Perhaps an R&B girl group will cover this in a couple of years and have a big hit.

MAGIC WAND
The opening beats remind me of U2's Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car. Then we get the female vocal sample from French Coffey's 'Nothing From Nothing'; "I'll give you everything, I'll make you feel like a king". The sample is well used, to the extent that it feels like vocals recorded for this track rather than an obvious cut up of another track. This track also has R&B / Hip Hop vibes about it, but it works better than Fountains.

THE WEIGHT
This immediateky starts with the "Who's Gonna Take The Weight?" sample from South Bronx's The Big Throwdown. But it's not really a hip hop track. We hear a vocal sample from Barry Brown's The Big Pollution, but it's not a reggae track either! There's a throbbing bass & drum groove that puts me in mind of Leave Home and (the recently mentioned) Let Us Build A City. There are dubby elements kinda floating and reverberating along the top of the track, but this is a bad ass groove. And I like it!

SKIPPING LIKE A STONE
There's no segue into this one, but we do get that long-ish, Kraftwerkian choral intro to settle us into a new timbre. We know the track by now; it takes a few listens to process it all, but there's a good song here.
As with others here, I think I prefer the extended mix. But alas we don't get to hear that one on the B&W speakers tonight.

THE DARKNESS THAT YOU FEAR (Harvest mix)
Yeah it's a new mix, No I can't tell you much more than that because Steph from Wales decided to chat to me about Field Day '22, and whether I was buyng the vinyl tonight (me: "No that's just a display copy". Steph: "No they're selling it"...)
EDIT: OK on second listen it has acoustic guitar early on and then groovy percussion sounds later on. A more 'live' feel than the original, but also goes a bit experimental at the end.

FEELS LIKE I'M DREAMING
Why not just title this one 'Dreaming'? Anyway it's a trippy electronic banger over a house/techno beat. It makes you want to move. I actually would have liked this track to "wig out" more than it does, with some kinda crazy synth solo in there somewhere. I think it gets a little repetitive over the course of its runtime and I still think it nicked an idea from Midnight Madness, but hey it ain't bad. Oh and it ends with that Kraftwerkian choral sound from Skipping Like A Stone.

FOR THAT BEAUTIFUL FEELING
That opening sound (continuing throughout) is like a slowed down Surface to Air. The opening vocals have an almost idylic Hawaiian vibe about them. I would agree with the Tame Impala reference (at least around that guitar riff which...doesn't come back), I'm also reminded of Wings' Band On The Run (McCartney's 'other' band of course greatly influenced Tame Impala's Lonerism).
It feel like the track takes a darker turn halfway through, like a David Lynch film that goes under the picket fence to see the insects scurrying around in the dirt.
By the end of the track Halo Maud's vocals almost feel like they're trying to force the issue, like a rictus grin when you're trying too hard to enjoy yourself, or as NME put it, like the comedown at the end of the party. This is art maaan! I can imagine this track being divisive. The people who don't like say, Radiate (they exist!) are really not gonna like this.
It could have taken easier options, and as BenJ said, it could also have been developed more, but it feels like this one is about the art rather than the people pleasing.

CONCLUSION
Overall it's a worthwhile album. There are no obvious "big hits" here, but there's plenty to enjoy.
I'm a little diappointed with the (short) length of Goodbye, I think Fountains feels out of place, and would prefer the extended mix of Skipping. Oh and Dreaming could do more.  So it's not gonna get 5 stars from me.
But it's a 3.5 to 4 star album for me. And because it's a Chemical 3.5 to 4 star album, that probably means it'll be my fave album of 2023.

[HavanaVegas]

I'm absolutely pumped out of my mind to finally hear "Feels Like I'm Dreaming"
   

If it's near to the live version we've been hearing for over a year then it's likely to become one of my all-time favourite CB tracks.

[Explud]

Leaked. Maybe an hour ago.

[Csar]

I hate the internet!

[BurnerMan54]

Leaked. Maybe an hour ago.

[wrclaguna]

You see the album at 3:56 minutes. by the window ?
0.25 she wasn't there yet 

[Ben_j]

The first impression is mitigated, not gonna lie. It feels like we've already heard all the interesting tracks, and the rest is not on the same level. It baffles me that we're getting Fountains (that could well be a Justin Timberlake track) when they're sitting on Papal Disco and other awesome stuff. 

No Reason, Feels Like I Am Dreaming and For That Beautiful Feeling are top tier, Live Again, Goodbye, Magic Wand are okay, but I think I'll skip (like a stone ? ) the other tracks whenever I listen to the album in the future.

[shakermaker]

13.5 hrs to go here in California! (leak be damned)

[HavanaVegas]

For anyone who's already heard the album - how different is the Harvest Mix of TDTYF?

[BurnerMan54]

Christ almighty, The Weight is an absolute old school banger

Edit: So is Magic Wand, holy shit. And I was sitting here reading impressions thinking they went soft.

For anyone who's already heard the album - how different is the Harvest Mix of TDTYF?

Pretty different. Actually not what I expected at all. Way more percussion, less electronic

[Wolkenkrabber]

For anyone who's already heard the album - how different is the Harvest Mix of TDTYF?

Feel free to read my comments on this and ALL the tracks under the spoiler tabs in my post 461 above.

[mesamm99]

Christ almighty, The Weight is an absolute old school banger Edit: So is Magic Wand, holy shit. And I was sitting here reading impressions thinking they went soft.

is is so true. I love how it brings back elements of where the Chem's started with their DJ career. Looking forward to hearing this properly upon official release versus the discord stream.

[𝒥𝑅𝒮𝒵]

For anyone who's already heard the album - how different is the Harvest Mix of TDTYF?

Spoiler

Spoiler

Feels like a bunch of chems-loving friends sitting around the fireplace playing their instruments around the stems of original.

You'll be really surprised

[𝒥𝑅𝒮𝒵]

As you may know we had an early bird listening party with our siblings on Piku Playground and tho I was sleepy as fck (chronic insomnia + excitement) so I couldn't focus as much as I'd love to it was a really worthy time, the new tracks are fantastic with my highlights as far being:
Goodbye, Magic Wand, The Weight & Dreaming.
The already released singles also get a nice treatment, you'll be really surprised with the Harvest mix + title track gains a lot in the context of outro!

There's a bit of No Geo, bit of DYOH-ish Big Beat, I think y'all love the record!

Now I'm waiting to give it a ton of relistens!

[Stefan]

Dammnit reading all your opinions is so tempting but since I'm old-school-go-to-the-store-and-buy-a-CD I'll have to wait until I get out of the office tomorrow, find the CD somewhere and get home.

[𝒥𝑅𝒮𝒵]

Dammnit reading all your opinions is so tempting but since I'm old-school-go-to-the-store-and-buy-a-CD I'll have to wait until I get out of the office tomorrow, find the CD somewhere and get home.

That's also my kind of thing, but this time polish premiere got delayed by whole week, so yeah...
Meanwhile with No Geo I've got it day earlier.

BTW, doing an update, I can't stop listening to Goodbye!

[ThePumisher]

I've just received the mail that shipment from the store begun. So no legal listening tomorrow for me, maybe mid-next week.

[neorev]

Chems released the album early thru their Bandcamp

Note: Link deleted due to scam profile

[HavanaVegas]

My god. "The Weight" has one of the sweetest basslines I've heard from the brothers! Takes me straight back to DYOH era, right enough.