Electronic music pioneers The Chemical Brothers have announced details of their tenth studio album. Titled For That Beautiful Feeling, the new record is due for release through Republic Records/Virgin EMI on September 8, 2023.
For That Beautiful Feeling somehow sums the duo’s new project up perfectly. Recorded in the band’s own studio just near the UK’s south coast, this is a record that hunts for and captures 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 colorful 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.
For That Beautiful Feeling also 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 you can watch below.
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 added, “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.”
Also in Chemical Brothers news, Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons also recently announced details of a career-spanning retrospective book. Paused in Cosmic Reflection is due for publication by White Rabbit on October 26, 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.
Pre-order For That Beautiful Feeling.
For That Beautiful Feeling includes the following tracks:
“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)”