Great album. I personally believe that it pioneered the Big Beat genre, but I feel like The Chemical Brothers somehow couldn't be the face figures of this movement as much as Fatboy Slim and The Prodigy became, and that's a shame.
I remember being hyped when I first saw the release of this album but was a bit disappointed. Brings the same feelings as their previous LP release "I Love You, Dude", where everything seems predictable, while still being an enjoyable hour of music.
Such a great listen, after 20 years of making experimental music, The Chemical Brothers still experiment with this record, and in my opinion, it pays off, with tracks that play with your feelings, some more than others though.
Just rating the 2nd disc here. Great outtakes that take us right in the studio with the artists of the Random Access Memories record. After building such a myth around them through their whole career, it almost feels intrusive to listen to their scrapped takes, little "failures" that are not really but still felt impossible from such a talented duo. This edition feels very intimate and it funnily makes the robots more... human.
While some of the tracks are absolute bangers, I can't help but feel like the middle and end of the album is underwhelming. Still ends up with 505, a personal favorite. Quality album nonetheless, just not a regular listen.
Masterpiece. In this record, Kendrick mastered politics, storytelling, tempo, hip-hop, rap, jazz and ambience, and mixed them all up in a beautiful record with great care and nicety of detail. It puts you in front of the complicated life of a black man in America, surrounded by dark emotions and racism, while still providing hope and inspiration of a better world.
Although this is a regular listen for me and probably one of my top 20 all-time, I get how people can tag this record as being repetitive and generic. 76 feels fair for an album I've been listening this much over the years.
Probably childhood nostalgia, but I feel like none of the songs of this record fall behind Thriller, Beat It and Billie Jean in terms of groove and production. All tracks are personal favorites.