Pitchfork

Why I Like the Chemical Brothers
by Toby H.

One CD that I really like a lot is by the Chemical Brothers. The name of the CD is called Hey Boy Hey Girl and it is really only a single from their most latest album. The reasons that it is such a good CD are that it has a lot of phat beats and sweet noises, but it also has a lot of symbolism. There are three songs on the CD.

The first song is called "Hey Boy Hey Girl" which is also the name of the CD. This song starts out kind of plain, with just a guy talking over some sorta siren-y noises. The guy says "Hey boy, hey girl... something something... DJs, here we go!" He says that over and over, like about more than 10 times, and you'd think that you would get tired of it but you don't, because it sounds so cool. Then after he says "Here we go!" the last time, that's when the beat kicks in. I think that's really deep, because he says "Here we go!" and then the song starts to go.

But my favorite part of the song is when in the middle, the beat kinda goes away and there's a soft part of the song. During that part there's just the high music parts and it sounds like it's getting farther away and then getting close again. I think the symbolism of the song is that boys and girls seem like they're different but then maybe they're not as different as you thought.

The second song is called "Flashback." This song sounds different from the first song, because the first song is a party jam type song. "Flashback" is a fast song too, like a party song, but it's more serious. It's a little bit scary sounding, and it's about how drugs can make things scary, I think. The only words are of a chick who's saying "flashback" over and over, just like in the name of the song. Only she's kind of whispering it so it sounds creepy. The music is really weird and trippy sounding and there is symbolism of somebody who is having a flashback from drugs.

The third and last song is my favorite song on the CD. It is called "Scale." There are no words in the song, but it is cool because the music is of somebody playing a scale, which is what the title means. This song does not have the same kinds of big beats that the other two songs have, but it has lots of different parts. It sounds like there are two or three different scales that get played. All of the scales go up and not down, which I think means something. This song is really experimental, and it reminds me of my other favorite band, the Alan Parsons Project.

In conclusion, Hey Boy Hey Girl is a good CD because it is good to dance to, or just to hang out to while drinking some brews with my house brothers, or even to study to, but it is mostly good because of its many meanings and symbolism.