When Basement Jaxx first set out to make Scars over two years ago, they’d planned to move away from the “woo hoo” moments that had defined them in the past and work on a more mature sound. Unfortunately, this change in direction produced a lack of one. “We just had too many different ideas, all of completely different styles, we needed to get some glue to stick it all together,” Simon Ratcliffe told ITM recently. So, after sorting through the 40 tracks they originally presented their label with, Basement Jaxx finally decided on 13 of the best and stuck together Scars.

Kelis, alongside UK artists Meleka and Chipmunk, opens the album with the brooding title track Scars, a exceptionally well-produced track that would suit the score of a modern day Opera. The mood is then changed by the album’s first single Raindrops. Featuring Jaxx’s own Felix Buxton on vocals, Raindrops is one of those unforgettable (and often overplayed) club tracks that Basement Jaxx owe their success to. Added at the final hour in an attempted to brighten up the album, the pounding beats and weightless ambiance of Raindrops will carry fans away on dancefloors everywhere.

Santigold lends herself well to Saga, a song penned by Felix after a public row on the streets of New York with his then partner. Santigold has made this heavy dubstep track her own, so much so that it wouldn’t sound out of place on her own album. Next on the A-list roll call is Sam Sparro with Feelings Gone, a reflection of the R&B/electronic/pop crossover that Mark Ronson, Armand Van Helden and Sparro himself have made popular over the past few years.

Nestled in the middle of the album, like a musical oasis, Devonte Hynes AKA Lightspeed Champion pops up on the wistful yet upbeat track My Turn. The song’s ambiance and catchy bass keep its melancholy lyrics afloat and inline with the rest of the album. Next and seemingly out of no where, Twerk, recorded with rowdy female MC duo Yo! Majesty, conjures up memories of classic Basement Jaxx tracks Oh My Gosh and Jump ‘N Shout. One listen of the track and it’s little surprise that after dealing with nudity, demands for “loads of brandy” and endless profanities the sound engineer turned to Felix during recording one day and said, “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life”.

It’d be easy to think that the atmospheric and tranquil Distractions and sober closing track Gimme Something True might be more suited to a chillout compilation, but these final tracks are in fact an important part of the Scars journey. Originally destined for a soundscape album due for release next month, these tracks reflect Simon and Felix’s longstanding passion for “music that’s more liberated, not pop music, not club music, music that you just chill and almost meditate to it”.

Scars isn’t an album that’s likely to be listened to from start to finish. With such an eclectic mix of styles here you’d be hard pressed to find a situation where a highly remixed party track like Twerk would suitably follow a soulful, melancholy track like A Possibility. Yet despite a lack of continuity on the album, Scars still deserves praise. Each song on the album, albeit it totally different, is clearly the product of hard work and consideration and exposes the creative journey Simon and Felix went through to make it. Scars isn’t a club album, a lounge album or a pop album, rather, it is an example of what a myriad of influences and musical tastes teamed up with an open-ended timeline will do to two very talented and creative people.

Check out ITM’s recent interview with Basement Jaxx, and the tracklisting below…

1. Scars Featuring Kelis, Meleka & Chipmunk
2. Raindrops
3. She’s No Good Featuring Eli “Paperboy” Reed
4. Saga Featuring Santigold
5. Feelings Gone Featuring Sam Sparro
6. My Turn Featuring Lightspeed Chapion
7. A Possibillity Featuring Amp Fiddler
8. Twerk Featuring Yo Majesty
9. Day Of The Sunflowers (We March On) Featuring Yoko Ono
10. What’s A Girl Gotta Do? Featuring Paloma Faith
11. Stay Close Featuring Lisa Kekaula
12. Distractionz Featuring Jose Hendrix Ndelo
13. Gimme Somethin’ True Featuring Jose James