[review 2005: the honourable mentions]

If you pick up a Thievery Corporation album, chances are you know what to expect: polished downtempo electronica with a great beat and a world music aesthetic, something inoffensive enough to play in a coffee shop but interesting enough that you could throw a track on at a party and no one would necessarily blink an eye. Alternatively, pick any Thievery Corporation album and your finest pot, hotbox the bedroom, and you’re all set.

The Cosmic Game is merely the latest version of the Thievery Corporation sound; perhaps more worldbeat, less downtempo this time around. Despite the presence of guest vocalists like Perry Farrell, David Byrne and Wayne Coyne, I imagine your reaction to The Cosmic Game will be roughly the same as it has been to other Thievery Corporation efforts. And while the electronic duo are nothing if not consistent, all that can really be said about their latest album is that it is slightly better than the rest of their work, but equally anonymous. The album works well taken as a whole, but it’s impossible to ignore the sameness of The Cosmic Game’s sixteen tracks, nor the relative blandness of the material. No new ground is being broken, and everyone knows it.

In the end, I’m glad I bought this because I don’t own any of the other Thievery Corporation albums out there. But after listening to The Cosmic Game, good as it is, I don’t think I’ll need to pick up any others.