Push the Button

Years removed from the moment when they were supposed to conquer the world, the Chemical Brothers are making some of the most engaging music of their careers. Now that they’re no longer jostling fitfully on the fringes of whatever dance music subgenre they’d been consigned to (techno? big beat? acid spunk?), the Brothers sound relaxed and playful. There’s an anything-goes feel to Push the Button: A disco-ready violin slices in and out of “Galvanize” while Q-Tip rhymes a call-to-arms over an insistent beat; the pulsing “Believe” features Kele Okereke, vocalist for the hotly tipped Scottish outfit Bloc Party, howling to an “Erotic City”–era Prince groove; and “Close Your Eyes” is a melodic folk-pop dirge. Even the dance floor instrumentals are lucid, embracing their pop impulses without pandering to them.