Yes,finally an album which is alive from these guys.This is also my 7th album (i never abandonded the band) from Thievery and as soon as the first beat hits you'll get familiar sound, which is upbeat spacey and groovy. The good news is they are able to maintain that feel through the entire album with ups and downs. Overall, if you never heard this band before this is a good album to start with. If you been around for a while, then you'll have fun with Culture of Fear.
I started listening to Thievery Corp several years ago with the Mirror Conspiracy and Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi. Those works are hard to match and were the signature works of these artists IMO. So it's pointless to always compare the newest work to the signature works, as people are prone to do in every musical field. People didn't like Pink Floyd's Division Bell that much because it wasn't Meddle or Dark Side of the Moon. To me that's a pointless exercise. Look at each work on its own merits based on ..
I'm a huge TC fan, and pre-ordered this CD. A *very* strong first two songs (powerful/groovy beats, cool sound effects, smart hip-hop lyrics) push the envelope of TC's creativity and range. There's also some fun reggae/dub sprinkled throughout the album.Unfortunately, these highlights are offset by otherwise generic-sounding, uninspired, and somewhat redundant (compare Amazon's sample tracks #7 & #11, for example) sounds that dominate the rest of the album.Overall, a decent electronica album, but for long..