Surrender - The Chemical Brothers

The Chemical Brothers have been around for years, but before this I hadn’t actually bought any of their albums. I decided to buy Surrender because I had heard a few of their songs when they were released as singles, and one song, Under the Influence, was featured on the soundtrack of the game Wipeout 3, which I own. I really liked songs like Hey Boy, Hey Girl so went out and bought the album. The opening track, Music: Response, is an absolute corker. It opens with some alien noises before going into some cool bleeping (it’s better than it sounds) with a robot voice in the background. The song has a great rhythm, and shows that the Chemical Brothers ...  Read the complete review

The Chemical Brothers are one of the better known dance acts, but generally succeed in resisting the temptation of churning out similarly-styled music to maintain their celebrity status. With their 1999 album 'Surrender' they continue their trend of fresh, innovative dance music. As a whole, the album is halfway between great and brilliant, with a couple of less inspired tracks hidden away between a majority of impressive material. By far the best track is 'Out Of Control,' which features the vocals of Bernard Sumner. His role in writing the song has allowed strong elements of New Order (Sumner's band) into the music, which when fused with the unique Chemical ...  Read the complete review

I loved Hey Girl Hey Boy, I thought it was a blinding single, and it most definitely got the party rocking. But I feared that the album itself would be a let down. You know the old story, huge single, shite album. But when Out of Control was released I knew that they had done it again. Bernard Sumner (New Order) and Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream) on the same song, out and out genius. And as for the music, pounding beats and winding bass, the usual screeching sound effects. All in all a great 'Brothers track, but by no means the outstanding track on the album. That credit goes to Sunshine Underground, which they have produced with James Asher, who brings into the mix ...  Read the complete review

This album is like no other. A superb collection of tunes ranging from the ear-tinglingly-fantastic to the banging complete the Chemical Brother's third album. If you like house, trance, even indie and progressive, then you'll love this album. There are very few people who wouldn't appreciate something of this as it really is cross-genre stuff and it is fantastic to listen to. It has the very distinctive stlye of the Chemical Brother's attatched to it - very acid synth sounding, with lovely bass lines and sound effects coupled with some great lyrics on some tracks (even one half of Oasis gives us a lyrical performace, "Let forever ...  Read the complete review

To be honest, like a lot of people, I thought the Chemical Brothers would struggle to surpass Dig Your Own Hole which was (is) an excellent album. However I think it's fair to say that they've done it, and with some style. This album has a consistently better track list and most fans will be able to play the entire CD through, skipping maybe only one or two tracks that are rejected on personal preference. DYOH, by comparison, is rather more patchy and at times becomes slightly repetitive. This album is much more varied and is all the better for it. The highlight is probably Hey Boy Hey Girl, though I admit that's just a personal favourite. ...  Read the complete review