The ingredients --
electronic
beats,
dub
, soft Brazilian tones, sitars, and women singing in foreign languages -- are entirely the same, but
Thievery Corporation
have never sounded so genuine. Despite the same old sound and a busy release schedule leading up to it,
The Cosmic Game
comes across as fresh as a debut and surprisingly indifferent toward being the in thing. What it is is music for music's sake, all laid out with the utmost care, giving listeners a fully thought-out album that makes the "forward" button on your CD player purposeless. Effortlessly flowing from the indie-grooving
"Marching the Hate Machines (Into the Sun)"
with
the Flaming Lips
to
reggae
samba
psychedelia
and beyond, the album is trimmed of all fat. Instrumentals with clever grooves sometimes overstayed their welcome on previous
Thievery
albums, but here they're whittled down to interludes when need be and positioned as chillout segues between the more striking numbers. The druggy,
Perry Farrell
-inna-
-style
"Revolution Solution"
is one of these stunners, but the superstars don't own all the highlights. As dank, Jamaican-flavored horns echo into the distance, siren
Sista Pat
lures listeners into the deep world of
"Wires and Watchtowers"
while soulful crooner
Notch
takes things uptown on the cool
"Amerimacka"
before
the Corp
turn the tune into one of their stickiest
outings yet. The pleasant
"The Heart's a Lonely Hunter"
deserves mention because
David Byrne
guests on vocals, and while it's very good, it's the most forgettable number on this outing. The track brings a very slight reminder of when
have let ambition trump the meaningful and meaty, but the otherwise purposeful and certain
Cosmic Game
is so darkly delicious you have to admit it's their masterwork. ~ David Jeffries