It's easy to take the advice offered in the title of Surrender, the seductive new album by the Chemical Brothers. Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons have, of course, spiked this disc with the hyper-charged, block-rocking beats that made their 1997 album, Dig Your Own Hole, such an event.

But even when the Brothers crank the electronic energy to its highest -- as on, for example, "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" -- they never miss the musical forest for the technological trees. Far too much techno sounds like a science experiment, but Rowlands and Simons attempt to reach their listeners on every level -- emotional and spiritual, as well as physical.

"Music triggers some kind of response," insists Surrender's opening track, and the album's shifting moods make that statement a reality. "Asleep From Day," featuring Mazzy Star singer Hope Sandoval, achieves a lulling, narcotic flow, while Noel Gallagher, from Oasis, contributes to the soaring Beatlesque psychedelia of "Let Forever Be." Jonathan Donahue of Mercury Rev, finally, guides Surrender to a close with "Dream On," an imaginative landscape so rich that, rather than leave Surrender's otherworldly wonder behind, you'll be tempted to just hit the "play" button and start the journey all over again.

Anthony DeCurtis

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