Volume 11, Track 8
Posted on | September 9, 2009 | 2 Comments
“Let Forever Be” by The Chemical Brothers (1999)
In my book, “Let Forever Be” is probably only eclipsed by “Life Is Sweet” as the best song that The Chemical Brothers have ever done. Additionally, this song is easily one of the best electronic songs of the decade, and Michel Gondry’s video for it is one of the best and most creative videos I have ever seen[1]. This song starts out with a wavy, drowsy-feeling sound before a nice, full-bodied drumkit kicks the song off in earnest. Like “Life Is Sweet” before it, “Let Forever Be” is further enhanced by its perfect, rock-like vocals. “How does it feel like to let forever be?/And how does it feel like/To spend a little lifetime sitting in the gutter?/Scream a symphony,” sings Oasis’ Noel Gallagher with a sustained accent on the word ‘feel’ throughout the song. As the song progresses, the wavy, drowsy sound that begins the song becomes subtly more and more ominous after each repeat appearance—this, combined with the vocals asking you rhetorically how it feels to be slowly deconstructed, give the song a strange and powerfully surreal atmosphere (something that Gondry absolutely nailed with the imagery of the video). All in all, “Let Forever Be” is The Chemical Brothers at an almost evil genius-like best: a song that has impeccable production value, weaves effortlessly between rock and electronic, and is, lyrically, kind of abstractly philosophically complex—and it all clocks in at under four minutes.
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[1] Feel free to look it up on YouTube but beware that the video quality of anything you will find online greatly diminishes how it looks when viewed on a television.
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September 22nd, 2010 @ 12:21 pm
[...] [2] See: “Life Is Sweet,” “Block Rockin’ Beats,” “Loops Of Fury,” “Let Forever Be” [...]
May 17th, 2011 @ 9:08 am
[...] some of the most masterful electronic works that The Chemical Brothers have produced, works such as “Let Forever Be,” “Life Is Sweet,” “Block Rockin’ Beats,” and “Leave [...]