Chemical Brothers, The ‎– Brotherhood

"Brotherhood" falls somewhere between being a sequel to "Singles 93-03" and an update of that compilation. "Singles 93–03" was an incomplete chronology of the singles of that period, focussing mainly on the more obviously commercial ones. "Brotherhood" retains some of those selections (especially the collaborations) and intersperses them with pretty much all of the singles released since, with the exception of "The Salmon Dance", perhaps the Chems' kookiest single, and with the non-single "Saturate" included instead. Like any modern singles album, this includes a couple of new tracks: "Keep my composure" and "Midnight Madness". The latter borrows heavily from longtime Chems' influence New Order - you can sing practically all of "Bizarre Love Triangle" right over it. As with "Singles 93-03", mid-period tracks such as "Let Forever Be" sound more dated than either the big beat monsters that preceeded them and more ambitious recent singles such as "Galvanize". "Brotherhood" is an enjoyable and beautifully packaged album, but overall it might have been better to wait until the Chems had another studio album under their belts, and then release a proper sequel to the first best-of, rather than this halfway-house. Still, if they'd waited that long, there might not be any such thing as a Chemical Brothers single. You know that vinyl singles really are in trouble when you can only get the latest Chems single as a download ...