Chemical Brothers Brush off Criticisms

The Chemical Brothers new album Come With Us topped Britain's album pop charts this week, despite relatively mixed reviews in the UK dance press. Selling just less than 50,000 copies the record was their third consecutive UK number one, cementing their continuing position as one of Britain's most popular bands. 7 magazine published one of the harshest reviews, suggesting the new album has been "tainted by the rock & roll ills of excess and expectation".

"If this album were a chemical it would be cocaine and lots of it," they suggested. "Showy yet shallow and leaves you feeling like you've been had."

DJ magazine, while generally quite positive, also honed in on apparent drug references, labelling the album ", a bit too knowingly druggy in its few vocal references, a bit too clean sounding, like a buffed up version of reality."

Speaking to dotmusic this week, however, the pair stressed they remain happy with their latest effort.

"We don't set about trying to make people think differently about dance music," said Ed Simons.

"We make albums that have diversity. We don't feel we point to 'the way you have to go' in dance music. People get off on things, it doesn't matter what we do."

The pair also announced details of their first live show in New York for over two years this week, on US label website Astralwerks. The duo will be performing at the Hammerstein Ballroom on April 16th, with tickets on sale from February 8.

http://www.thechemicalbrothers.com

http://www.dotmusic.com
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