CD CHECK

The Baltimore Sun

Chemical Brothers -- We Are the Night (Astralwerks) Electronic big-beat dance-music geeks get old, too, so maybe that's what explains "The Salmon Dance," the novelty number on the Chemical Brothers' sixth album. It sounds like a demo for a drum-programmed children's record. But besides that foray into unabashed goofiness, the Bros are mostly up to their old excellent tricks of bass-drum-powered ravers such as "Saturate," and swooshy head trips such as "The Pills Won't Help You Now," a collaboration with Midlake. It's spotty at times, but, on the whole, the album proves to be up to the challenge presented by other up-and-coming electro-nerd duos.

Smashing Pumpkins -- Zeitgeist (Martha's Music/Reprise) What's the difference between a Smashing Pumpkins reunion record and anything else its braying leader Billy Corgan has done since the act's first finale? Corgan's 2003 "super-group" Zwan and his 2005 solo effort, TheFutureEmbrace, both had drumming Pumpkin Jimmy Chamberlain; both contained Corgan's nasal whine and head-hurt/heart-sore lyrics. Sans James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky, what's Smashing? Corgan leaps to his band's Mellon Collie past for shrieks psychedelic ( "United States") and thrashing (the blunt "Doomsday Clock"). Not bad. But not as good as crunching glam-theme "Tarantula."

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