Customer Reviews

Further

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Other reviewers will weigh in on the album. It's like Lemon Jelly on (more?) LSD. I want to focus on the DVD. The visuals are interesting, and the "making of" was great to watch. The problem is with the sound encoding. Despite dolby digital 5.1 and dts audio being printed on the packaging materials, the DVD only contains one audio track, stereo. Not a huge problem, but I wouldn't have purchased the DVD if I had known that. iTunes has the same stuff in the "Further" pass, which I bought first. I ordered the physical product for 5.1/dts on the DVD.

My relationship with The Chemical Brothers has been one comparable only with my favorite soccer team: happy when they win, sore when they lose, and utterly frustrated when the moves are so obviously wrong that I swore to give it up altogether several times. Their previous two records have been a collection of big names and non cohesive songs that did not flow naturally and were rather chopped, almost forced to sound good to entice buyers instead of stimulating followers. Further shatters the curse and by taking a step back the Bros. move forward, ahead of the stagnant phase they seemed unable to surpass.

The first thing that one notices is the minimal use of voice and vocal samples. The few times Tom Rowlands or singer Stephanie Dosen participate is to enhance rather than lead, which helps to structuring sequence and avoid disrupting the mood of the record.

Escape velocity, the first taste we heard of Further, is over ten minutes long, pays homage to The Who with synthesizers that give cue to an ecstatic celebration impossible to miss and not once resorts to supporting vocals to soar. That they managed to pull off such a welcome flashback to their glory days is a remarkable fact.

Horse power is probably the track that most captures the spirit of their music: built on two simple words it gallops its way to an explosive chorus that would make any club goer cream with pleasure. Fist single Swoon capitalizes on the memento and pushes the record to a mellower conclusion. By the time the last notes of Wonders of the deep vanish one is left with the impression that we have just experienced one of their live shows, such is the force of their sound and the immersive flow they deliver.

The digital release offers two more tracks, Don't think and Porquoui, and the CD/DVD pack shows their first proper partnership with long time visual collaborators Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall, who created a short film for each one of the eight tracks.

Further is a well-rounded electronica record. It belongs in the dance floor and not in the playlist of some pop station. The Chemical Brothers maturity does not sound dated; it is renewed, energetic. By shedding off the entrapment of an aged formula they have succeeded in creating their best album of this decade.

For album number seven, UK Electronic/Dance duo The Chemical Brothers (Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands) do away with guest vocalists and decide to go it alone. "Further" features just Tom Rowlands on whatever scant vocals there are, and Stephanie Dosen who appears on "Snow" singing the repetitive mantra "Your love keeps lifting me higher" against an insistent whine.

Comprising just eight tracks, the album is sequenced like a live throbbing experience. "Escape velocity" is a euphoric piece that builds and builds to a dizzying climax with synths tripping all over the place, followed by the dreamy "Another world" with melancholic falsetto vocals.

"Dissolve" is psychedelic Pop with a groovy feel, while the aggressive "Horse power" makes clever use of horse neighs with galloping beats and the title repeated in a vocodered voice as though in a trance. "Swoon" features bursts of noise like shards of glass flying about and forming a pretty picture sounding like My Bloody Valentine set to an electro beat, "K+D+B" features feathery vocals and electric sitar/bagpipe sounds, while the Coldplay-style Rocker "Wonders of the deep" shimmers and bubbles much like the Aurora Borealis.

I'd be surprised if there are any hit singles as the whole album really needs to be heard together. A beautiful wall of electronic melody.

I've been following the Chemical Brothers since "Exit Planet Dust", and unfortunately this is the most uninteresting of all of their releases. The quality of music is not bad, but it just hangs around with no real climax. There are certain times where it builds and builds and I'm like ok, here's where it's going to bust into a psychedelic beat fest, but it doesn't. It just collapses back down to the same monotonous drone. "Horse Power" is the only exception to this formula because there is a distinctive energetic beat that grabs your attention and pushes you into a euphoric trance. I just wish the CD as a whole held my interest as much as this track does. The next time I play "Further" it will be used as the background for my activity rather than the forefront.

In my opinion this is their best record since "Dig Your Own Hole", and yes that does mean I hink this is better than "Surrender." This decade the Chems have released the prety great "Come With Us" album, the good "Push the Buttons", and the sub-par "We Are the Night", but this album is a return to the highs they showed in their late 90s heyday. Tracks Escape Velocity and Swoon are epic, beautiful psychadelic explosions for your brain, and all of these tracks have an epic intensity that makes this in my opinion their second best album. Brilliant!

This is the flipside to my recent harsh review of We Are the Night, their previous album-

After giving up on the Brothers several years ago (after Push the Button,) this week something made me want to check out what they'd done since then so I picked up the last two albums. We Are the Night reminded me of why I had stopped listening; it was devoid of the things I loved about the first three albums: a bigger than life sound and catchy hooks. It cemented my feeling that they had simply run out of juice, as virtually all bands do at some point. But then I moved on to their latest album Further, and I am forced to admit I was wrong. This is one hell of a comeback, though it's not exactly a return to the old days. There aren't many (any?) intense breakbeats to be found, but rather this is filled with what I always thought was their true forte: bright and colorful sugar-pop techno soundscapes that bring to mind visions of sunshine in a blue sky as you soar in an amphibicopter over a futuristic utopian metropolis, with your robot girlfriend riding shotgun. Dissolve is the standout track for me. I'm really glad I decided to give them a second chance. I might even like this better than the early stuff.

I have been a Chemical Brothers fan for a long time. For me Surrender was their best album, it was just perfect electronic music, just perfect. "Come with Us" was not a bad album but i was a little disappointed with "Push the Button" and "We are the Night" but NOW.....they are absolutely BACK!!!
"Further" returns to the roots which made chemical brothers so big.......It those beat changes, those sharp noises, the melodic synths which elevate the song, they enhance the feeling of the electronica and I can just picture Tom and Ed banging those machines in a concert, jumping and making me feel like i am escaping the gravity of planet earth!!!

My favorite song by far from this album is Escape Velocity.....and the video is just amazing!! you must check this out definitely!!
My next favorite track is Another World....the beat to this song combined with the lyrics and the sharp bouncy noises are the Chemical Brothers' trademark.
The album opens and ends very well, the first and last song glue the album together to make it a unique musical experience you cannot miss!
If you like electronic music this might be the best Chemical Brothers album of the decade.

I first discovered the Chemical Brothers with "Exit Planet Dust." I followed it up with "Dig Your Own Hole." These albums had some really great stuff, but not all was well. A problem I have with Chemical Brothers CDs is that they tend to be uneven. Perhaps it's just me. I just love some of the songs and would rather skip over others. I suppose I should just collect the best of the songs from each of the CDs and then make a Chemical Brothers disc that satisfies my own personal tastes. The problem is, it then doesn't flow well as a well-thought-out CD should. In my opinion, the "Surrender" CD is the best the Brothers have turned out and I stopped being a serious listener at about that point or shortly thereafter. Well, now the "Further" CD is out and I just couldn't resist. It's a good CD and is well done. It has a nice collection of songs, but none stands out in my mind. I'm certain a lot of people think it's great stuff. I have no complaints. I think that my tastes have just drifted away from Chemical Brothers music and now lean more toward Matthew Dear, Daft Punk and Deadmau5. Adios, Brothers. I've really enjoyed your music over the last decade.

Gary Peterson

I just need to say that not since Dig Your Own Hole have I listened to a Chemical Brothers album and not had mixed feelings about it. Maybe that's a confusing statement. I mean, that if I was to rank Chemical Brothers albums, I would probably tie Exit Planet Dust & Dig Your Own Hole (1st and 2nd places), and Further at 3rd. No mixed feelings about this album here.

There has always been some kind of goofy song or lyric that keeps me from enjoying their whole albums. Listening to Surrender I despised hearing the lyric "Superstar DJs... Here we go!". On Come With Us, "My Elastic Eye" was like 'yeah, I guess I see what you're trying to do here, but this is too goofy'. "Denmark" was redundant. I missed Push the Button altogether (Oops). And We Are the Night's single "Do It Again" was the lowest of the low in Chemical Brothers canon. Of course these albums had lots of great moments too, but it was these lame songs that kept me from keeping the Chemical Brothers as one of my favorite groups ever.

When I heard Further though, everything came easy. These were the Brothers that had impeccable taste--that could do no wrong. I mean it isn't mindblowing music or anything, but it's fresh and fun. It's full of great beats and flashy production (albeit less funk-laden than back in the day) and that's why we look forward to a new Chemical Brothers album! I also appreciate how these new songs are more skeletal in a way; they are built on simple chords or riffs, the vocals are only like one or two lines per song. In general, there are fewer ideas going on at once yet this does not detract from how interesting the songs are.

I'd say that if you have fallen away from whatever THE BROTHERS have been doing for whatever reason, try this new one out. I'm sure they will swoon the pants right off you.

Short review here: I just wanted to chime in that I really like this record, a lot. I've not been the biggest Chemical Brothers' fan, but I've kept up with their stuff over the years. For a whole album, this one charts as my favorite of theirs. The album works pretty well as a whole piece and focuses more on their "psychedelic" electronic sound rather than the "big-beat" style hits (there are still plenty of beats, though).
It's something I can listen to quite a lot and keep enjoying it. Tracks 2 and 3 are my favorites as of now. "Swoon" sounds to me a lot like Orbital, but I like Orbital.

I like the Chemical Brothers' collaborations, like with Q Tip and Noel Gallagher, but I really like just hearing them have at it on their own, which they haven't really done like this, not even on Exit Planet Dust, and the sound of this record is far advanced from those days. Quite a nice trip.