Surrender

At the height of their commercial power, the Chemical Brothers learn when not to hit harder. 'Hey Boy, Hey Girl' has all the expected big-beat force, while 'Let Forever Be' and the quieter passages open gaps that earlier records would have filled. Surrender sounds bigger because it finally knows what to leave out.

Where they turned toward psychedelia and Bernard Sumner. Less brutal than Dig Your Own Hole and better sequenced than most of what surrounds it.