Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 21/09/09
Label: XL

So called because its creation was a such a bruising and painful experience for the South London duo, Basement Jaxx's fifth album, "Scars", is a major recalibration of a sound which, once the embodiment of all that was good about dance music, had gone off the boil in recent times. Where last album, 2006's "Crazy Itch Radio", was a scrappy collection of eager to please pop desperately chasing chart hits, here clubland's revival has prompted the pair to return to their first love: deep grooves that invigorate both on and off the dancefloor.

From the opening operatic opus of the title track, with Kelis and UK rapper Chipmunk getting intimate to a march of grandiose, grime inspired keyboards, it's apparent that this is an album with more focus and purpose than their more recent efforts. The four to the floor sitar groove and ecstatic chorus of second track "Raindrops" confirms it with a burst of joy so simple, so elated, it could only be a Basement Jaxx single.

The unabashed feelgood factor flows on through the bittersweet, 2am house of Sam Sparro collaboration "Feelings Gone" and on to "My Turn"'s tender comedown. Resurging for the classic Jaxx whomp-whomp carnival of Yo Majesty hook-up "Twerk", the wave of elation then finally arrives like a burst of insanity at respectively surreal and vampish performances from Yoko Ono and Paloma Faith for the festival rocking bounces of "Day Of The Sunflowers" and "What's A Girl Gotta Do". As eccentric and inspired as its cast list, it's a wilfully eclectic barrage. What makes it work, and unmistakably Basement Jaxx, is their ability to channel all that energy and excitement into irresistible dance grooves.

Yet, while "return to form" is easy to say, delivering it apparently involved repeated dismantling and rebuilding of what had started as dark and subdued tracks influenced by recession, relationship breakdowns, illness, a mugging and dance's then fashion for brooding minimalism. A trying process maybe, but one which clearly allowed them to get to the essence of what made them an essential party ingredient in the first place. It also delivered some mesmerizingly off-kilter moments, the angry dubstep of Santigold's "Saga", the unlikely tex-mex soul of "Gimmie Somethin'", to balance the obvious anthems with invention and creativity.

In short, "Scars" is the strongest Basement Jaxx album since 2001's "Rooty". In deciding to concentrate less on hits and more on floor-fillers they've found more of both, and crucially, they've found themselves again. And with a second dance boom imminent, it's a relief to have them back.

    by Dan Gennoe