The Chemical Brothers – Born In The Echoes

As much as I love The Chemical Brothers, I find "Born in the Echoes" to be their weakest album.

The first track, "Sometimes I Feel So Deserted" sorta drags. It's not bad. But it's a 3/5 for me. "Go" is an improvement. But I prefer "Under Neon Lights". I like the acoustic drumming in "I'll See You There".

"Just Bang" is not only the worst track, but one of the Brothers' worst work as well. Mostly just random banging sounds. I think it would have been better if they made it a shorter track.

"Reflexion" is another track that drags. Though I do find the beat somewhat catchy.

"Taste Of Honey" is a short and interesting track with sound effects of a bee. The sound they used in that track. They also used it for a song they made for The Hunger Games.

The only track in "Born in the Echoes" I give an A+ to is "Wide Open". Well made song. Well produced. Best track on the album!

Overall, this album is a C+ for me.

what an album!!! wow!! Boom Chemical Brothers _/\_ listening and re-listening and loving it more and more all the times.
Hope the brothers keep releasing greatness through music always :) BooM

I was also really surprised with this album. Their worst work ever. Pity they diverted so much from their original style.

Есть такой, лицензия 2015 года! Правда русская версия от Универсал мусик россия! =)

There is a license in 2015! True Russian version of the Universal Musik Russia! =)

Man, what happened to these guys? It seems that after they released 'Dig Your Own Hole', they abandoned their signature Big Beat sound and shifted more toward House and Electro with each album having a more crappy sound to it, for a lack of better words. And I hate saying it because I've been a fan of the Chemical Bothers since their inception. I they used to be one of the biggest names in the industry and had a cutting edge sound that no other artist could come close to touching. But then they released 'Surrender', and they've never gone back to the Big Beat sound. Now I know that the Genre has shifted and Big Beat isn't as popular as it was back in the mid to late nineties, but that is what put these guys on the map along with other artists such as 'The Prodigy' and 'The Crystal Method'. And again, I know it's not easy to put this kind of music together or to come up with it from scratch. It's just kind of sad to hear what these guys have become when it's compared to their earlier albums.

"Sometimes I Feel So deserted" is the one minute, filler song that turned into a full track. It's kind of hard to listen to though because it sound like each instrument is 'playing to it's own rhythm' in a way that you can't keep in time with the song. Clearly deserving of the name: "Some Times I Feel So Deserted".

"Go" has got to be the best track on that album. It sounds like 'Galvanize' only with less 'Trip Hop' and more 'pop'. Now a lot of you might hear the word pop and immediately think to yourself, "CRAP", but trust me, I heard this song before I even knew it was the chemical Brothers and even even though I despise Pop, I still liked this song!

"Under Neon Lights" is a little redundant but It still sounds ok. It has a similar vibe to the song, "Do It Again", only with less samples and more female singers.

"I'll See You There" SCREAMS, "we are trying to get back to our psychedelic roots!", and it rather does a great job at accomplishing that task, only rather than using powerful chords and lots of small, additive melodies, they use a glitchy off-key lead and erie, reversed samples of singing

"EML Ritual" Is Basically the same as the first song on this album only with a darker feeling to it. The best part of the song is definitely the ending, the lead up might take a long time but It is worth it.

"Just Bang" is not that good (in my opinion). It sounds like they made audio scrapple with all of the synths, samples, and drums that they didn't like.

"Reflection" I think was the song that the Chems were counting on being the most popular on this album. The only thing I have to complain about however is that on one section of the song, it sounds like they try to add to the 'mass' of the lead synth by distorting the it to the point of almost silencing all of the other instruments, but it only comes out sounding like they made an error when they were equalizing the song.

Taste Of Honey is the filler song and it is worse than Playground Of A Wedge-less Firm. it sounds like they took a trap song, stripped it of it's beat, and replaced the rapper with a singer that sounds like a sample that they forgot to set to the right pitch.

Radiate Is the one mellow, happy song that is (for some reason) on every single Chemical Brothers album but other than that it is nothing special.

Wide Open is amazing, just a very well put together track. The melody Is sad but great, the vocals don't seem out of place, and is just a great song altogether. It is most certainly worthy of the 'big finish' track for this album (which also is (for some reason) on every Chemical Brothers album). If I could come up with one complaint for this song, However, It would be that it does not really sound like a "Chemical Brothers" track ( then again, not a lot of tracks on this album do)

This album is Chemical Brothers through and through.
Refreshingly minimalist after the bombastic Further, which was fantastic in very different way.
This album cuts things back, almost forcing you to hear every moment of the production process.
There are obvious highlights, but really the album is laid out traditionally so that every track is best complimented by the tracks prior and preceding it. Excellent album.

ooh, nasty...
this album is even worse than "Further", the only two first tracks are acceptable

As a huge fan of theirs, I must say that this album isn't their best work. However, "I'll See You There" is nothing but pure classic Chemical Brothers brand psychedelia at its best!

Taste Of Honey!!! 8)