Chemical Brothers Snag Fifth U.K. No.1 Album

Dance mainstays the Chemical Brothers scored another U.K. No. 1 album, their fifth, with "We Are the Night" (Virgin). Yesterday's new charts also ushered in an eighth week at the top of the singles survey for "Umbrella" (Def Jam) by Rihanna featuring Jay-Z.

The Chemical Brothers first topped the British album chart in 1997 with "Dig Your Own Hole" and repeated the feat with "Surrender" (1999), "Come With Us" (2002) and 2005's "Push the Button." The new set, which includes the current top 20 hit "Do It Again," leads the chart ahead of the Traveling Wilburys' "Collection" (Rhino/Warner Bros.), which is back up 3-2, and "Time on Earth" (Parlophone) by the regrouped Crowded House, which opened at No. 3. That's the highest U.K. placing for a studio album by the Antipodean group, whose 1996 compilation "Recurring Dream" reached No. 1 in the market.

Chemical Brothers - We Are The Night

The Chems have influenced massive swathes of modern music and particularly the UK’s dance scene, but now it’s difficult to be anything but apathetic.

Pop down the shop for a pie and you’ll practically get knocked over by a beat and bass disciple running back to their studio to work on a new loop. Simian, Calvin Harris, Dizzee Rascal and Groove Armada are all churning out high quality albums right across the genre and that’s before factoring in the likes of New Young Pony Club who straddle the indie/dance divide.

This being Tom and Ed Chemical (their real surnames are far too dull), WATN is not an unmitigated disaster.

The title track remarkably sounds like stars exploding and towards the end of the record are three ace tunes in a row. "Burst Generator", where synths explode into coruscating My Bloody Valentine waves of sound, is clearly this LP’s answer to "The Sunshine Underground" from the duo’s far superior Surrender album. But it remains to be seen if a band will name themselves after …"Generator".

Immediately after this "A Modern Midnight Conversation" is much better than its shocking sixth-form art project title suggests and is almost 2007’s "I Feel Love". Giorgio Moroder would surely love the bassline. Finally, "Battle Scars" is a pleasing set of aural contrasts with gentle piano samples working well with a spoken poem and crisp breakbeats.

This top trio aside, WATN is something of an embarrassment for a pair that were masters of their art. Klaxons collaboration "All Rights Reversed" takes the worst of both bands and shunts them together, "Do It Again" is a sexless and joyless Kelis parody, "The Salmon Dance" is only slightly less annoying than getting hit by one in the face and "Saturated" is the sort of timid trance-edged guff that gives deep house a bad name.