Machine Says Yes cover

Machine Says Yes

Released

Roughly 450 trip-hop albums came out each week in the late 90s and early aughts. (No need to check that figure—it’s airtight.) Machine Says Yes is a gloriously trashy and masterful meltdown of every Fatboy Slim and Chemical Brother and big beat and trip hop commercial hack-assed idea, reduced to its most fun and fast-acting essence. The opener, “Hayling,” is that Xanax dream theme from Layer Cake. “Hayling” is also an outlier, in that it sounds very much like the comedown from the rest of the album. I have no idea who is in this group and I am never going to look it up. This has aged very well.

Sasha Frere-Jones

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