The Chemical Brothers – one of the most acclaimed and innovative electronic duos in the world – have announced details of their tenth studio album. For That Beautiful Feeling is due for release on September 8th, 2023.
The record’s title sums it up perfectly. Recorded in the band’s own studio just near the south coast, this is a record that hunts for and captures that that wild moment when sound overwhelms you and almost pulls you under yet ultimately lets you ride its wave, to destinations unknown. It’s a record that pinpoints the exact moment you lose all control, where you surrender and let the music move you as if pulled by an invisible thread.
Each track on For That Beautiful Feeling was born out of a desire to find that point of vision in the studio, a point that could then be refracted back onto the dancefloor through the music. As a result, it’s a collection of music that’s vividly colourful and confident and deeply psychedelic; impossible beauty carved from noise and chaos and endless fluid rhythm.
From the towering four to the floor rollercoaster ride of Live Again and the glorious analogue noise breakdown of Goodbye; through the return of Beck (previously heard on the Chemical Brothers’ 2015 single Wide Open) on the propulsive and dreamy Skipping Like A Stone and on to the deep, hypnotic swoon of the album’s title track, it’s clear that the duo’s tenth album comes from and is made for that beautiful feeling – that transcendent state that they evoke like no one else in modern music. It’s The Chemical Brothers at their very best.
For That Beautiful Feeling features the singles No Reason and The Darkness That You Fear and Live Again, which features vocals from Heavenly Recordings’ artist Halo Maud.
Longterm Chemical Brothers collaborators Dom & Nic (“Wide Open”, “Hey Boy Hey Girl”) have directed the video for “Live Again”, which is online everywhere now.
Dom & Nic on the video: “Working with The Chemical Brothers is a dream for any video director. We’re really lucky to be still making films together after quite a few years. The Chems just keep smashing it with great tracks that demand videos that live up to the music and hopefully add something extra to the whole experience. “Live Again” is our tenth collaboration… the woozy, wonky analog sounds and the dream like lyric suggested a hallucinogenic visual journey following a character caught in a loop of death and rebirth. The idea inspired us to use the new Arri XR virtual production stage and its cutting edge technology in a way that had never previously been done. This is an idea that could not really have been achieved with traditional filmmaking techniques. We created virtual CGI worlds and used long unbroken camera takes, without edits, moving between those different worlds seamlessly with our hero character. Making and editing the video, we were showered with the generosity of such a strong and huge team of immensely talented companies and individuals that helped us to make this film happen because they love working with The Chemical Brothers. Without their time, talents and generosity a film like this could never make it out of heads and onto a screen.”
The Chemical Brothers recently announced details of a career-spanning retrospective book. Paused in Cosmic Reflection is due for publication by White Rabbit on October 26th 2023. The book is made up of new interviews with the band as well as many of their friends and collaborators from the past three decades, including Noel Gallagher, Aurora, Wayne Coyne, Beth Orton, Beck, Michel Gondry and many more. The book is available for pre-order here.
The Chemical Brothers are Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. For three decades, they have defined the cutting edge of electronic dance music both on their multi-Platinum selling records and with their hugely lauded hallucinogenic live shows which have played to millions at festivals and arenas all over the world. For That Beautiful Feeling is the first Chemical Brothers album since 2019’s No Geography, which featured the massive singles “Got To Keep On”, “Free Yourself” and “Mad As Hell”.
For That Beautiful Feeling tracklisting:
Intro
Live Again (feat. Halo Maud)
No Reason
Goodbye
Fountains
Magic Wand
The Weight
Skipping Like A Stone (feat. Beck)
The Darkness That You Fear (Harvest Mix)
Feels Like I’m Dreaming
For That Beautiful Feeling (feat. Halo Maud)
