OTR: The Chemical Brothers - Come With Us

Released a little over eleven years ago on January 29^th, 2002 , Come With Us is The Chemical Brothers' fourth album and the first one I reviewed by the group as WAIH's music director. By the time I was at the helm of what sounds were going over the college radio airwaves in Potsdam, New York, this disc had no trouble getting into rotation. And it was a hit too, as the radio station staff was reinvigorated after a group of malcontents who poisoned morale and sabotaged progress had either been ousted or quit in the previous semester. Suffice it to say that it was a frustrating time which I don't feel like writing about now.

The Spring semester of 2002 was supposed to be when I would have graduated had things gone to plan. Instead, faced with issues getting the required credits, trouble with financial aid eventually leading to the mistake of taking out student loans, a million academic frustrations and a creeping sense of existential dread, I ended up going one semester into university overtime. Then I failed out.

Come With Us was one of my favourite albums of 2002. With ten tracks clocking in at 55 minutes, it is an album with doesn't have any filler; and like previous released by the Chems, the party is pretty much non-stop for those 55 minutes. The title cut immediately blasts off into the stratosphere, before grooving right into the syncopated big beats of "It Began In Afrika," the teaser 12" released prior to the album proper. That segues directly into "Galaxy Bounce," which is a groovy funk loop hinting at Chic.

The Jam here is "Star Guitar," which glides and pulses out of the speakers, into the ears and wraps itself around one's brain. If there were one song being played by damn near every DJ at WAIH in the Spring of 2002 (be it on the actual radio or via distracted tapping on the board table during a station meeting), this would be it. A gold star if you can tell me what makes the Michel Gondry directed video for the song similar to the one for "Around The World" by Daft Punk:

The only slow moments on Come With Us are "Hoops," which samples The Association and "The State We're In," which features Beth Orton on vocals. "The Test," which closes this set feature Richard Ashcroft (formerly of The Verve) on vocals which eventually end up being nearly drowned out by what sounds like the love child of disco and psychedelic rock. Epic and trippy is one way to describe it.

Admittedly, this was the disc which got me into this band. Unlike so many CDs in my collection from the early 2000s, this one isn't a spare copy with a "promotional use only" stamp on it. I went to the record store - Strawberry Fields, according to the price tag still on the case - and purchased a copy. Of course, I purchased it used, as then I was a poor college student. Now I'm a poor parent of two; how things change and yet they don't. Looking at the amount I paid, however - $10.79 - is a testament to how much I was enjoying this album at the time. You know, it holds up.

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"Off the Rack" or OTR is my attempt to listen to every album in my CD collection and write something - albeit not necessary a review - pertaining to it and my life. Read previous entries in the series.