OTR: The Chemical Brothers - Surrender

In reviews for The Chemical Brothers' third album Surrender (released June 21^st, 1999), critics said that the duo was now more focused on house music than big beat. I have to be honest: I can't tell the difference between the two. In fact, if I were to be tasked with sorting and identifying all of the sub-genres of techno or electronic dance music I'd fail spectacularly...mostly because I'd find doing so kind of silly.

It was a single from this album which was my first proper introduction to The Chemical Brothers. "Let Forever Be" had been sent to WAIH as a promo and being this was the Fall of 1999, I wouldn't become the station's music director for nearly another year. If memory serves, the MD at the time was ill-suited for the task. Somewhere along the way he'd gotten the idea that a college radio station should focus on singles and he tried to brand the place as a "modern rock" station. It was an insult to a diverse student body and a violation of the special position one holds on the left side of the dial. During his tenure, "Let Forever Be" was the only thing from The Chemical Brothers to make it into the station - I doubt he even tried for the full-length of Surrender or if he did, it was absorbed into his personal collection with so many other albums which should have been added to WAIH's archives.

Noel Gallagher returned to lay his guest vocals upon "Let Forever Be," however another track on the LP has more interesting vocalists. A sure sign that The Chemical Brothers had moved up in the musical world, Bernard Sumner (New Order) is heard singing on "Out of Control." And when it's not Sumner, you're hearing Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream). Meanwhile, Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star) shows up for a turn on "Asleep From Day" (sounding a for a bit lot like something her former group would have recorded) and Jonathan Donahue (Mercury Rev) sings on closing track "Dream On."

For me the most interesting song on this set is "The Sunshine Underground." Sounding like the big brother to "Star Guitar," which would be released on Come With Us in 2002, it begins slowly, gradually building up before exploding into big beat bliss. By comparison, "Star Guitar" starts slowly but doesn't stay slow for very long. If I were to try and describe the song, I'd say listening is akin to taking drive down psychedelic road towards an open stage where house music is being playing. Apropos of nothing, an indie rock band from Leeds named themselves after this song.