As they are today, The Chemical Brothers are a group that are best described as a nostalgia act, rising to fame amidst the rave culture of the late 90s, fading from popularity in the 2000s, and spending the 2010s attempting to adapt to modern tastes to varying degrees of success. It’s from this mindset that “For That Beautiful Feeling” was created, a summer party album that they decided to release in September for some unknown reason.
Following a minute-long intro track consisting of distorted vocals over a bland drumbeat, “Live Again”, the first real song of the album begins. A collaboration with French Pop singer Halo Maud, what could have been a potentially decent song is let down by the presence of a conspicuously offbeat and off-key vocal sample that plays throughout much of the song. The trend of potentially decent tracks being ruined by one bad creative decision continues on the album’s lead single, “No Reason”, a dark, funky track that falls apart halfway through when they introduce a synth sound so uninspired that I’d be shocked to find out it wasn’t an unaltered keyboard preset.
Fortunately, it is at this point that the album momentarily begins to build some steam. “Goodbye” is a whirlwind of haunting, organ-like keys and buzzsaw synths that build up to a great drum fill, “Fountains” combines a pounding beat reminiscent of 2000’s ringtone rap with a fantastic Rick Wakeman-esque keyboard solo, and “Magic Wand”, while feeling somewhat incomplete in both production and structure, is short enough not to be too irritating. By far the best song on the album (and not coincidentally, the most reminiscent of their early work) is “The Weight”, a blood-pumping, upbeat number whose clean, funky bass, dreamy saxophone breakdown, and suspenseful lyrics (“Who's gonna take the weight? Who's gonna take the blame?”) invoke images of a 70s crime drama akin to the ones parodied by the Beastie Boys in their video to “Sabotage”.
Shockingly, directly after this comes the worst song on the album. “Skipping Like A Stone”, a collaboration with fellow 90s has-been Beck, is as bland of a dance track as you could possibly come by. You’d probably get the same experience listening to white noise for four minutes as you would listening to this song. I was convinced it was placed on the album solely to placate the record label’s demand for a radio-friendly single, but the following track, “The Darkness That You Fear (Harvest Mix)”, fits that role perfectly while also avoiding sounding soulless and devoid of passion, leading one to wonder what the point of including the track on the album even is.
“Feels like I’m Dreaming” is somewhat of a return to form, featuring an intense, glitchy breakdown and production that comes off as a midpoint between 90s and modern dance music, although I did find the chorus to be slightly annoying. The last track, “For That Beautiful Feeling” features Halo Maud again over sparse instrumentation that builds up throughout the song before reaching a disappointing climax that comes off as a half-baked attempt at imitating M83.
“For That Beautiful Feeling” comes off as The Chemical Brothers trying to be something that they’re not. Tracks like “Fountains” and “The Weight” Prove that the duo could likely put out another album on the level of their first four if they really wanted to, but as it is, they seem to be more preoccupied with chasing trends in a desperate attempt to recapture the stardom they enjoyed in the 90s.
6/10