Junkie XL broke into the mainstream in the late 90s riding the techno-pop-rock wave let loose by the likes of Moby, Prodigy and Fatboy Slim. Like his peers, Junkie XL existed in some pop music void. It was a confusing mish mash of genres, spanning house and techno, to pop and rock without much sense of convention or throat stripping angst. Yet it was popular, and the infectious beats and processed vocals dished out by these DJ/producers/rock stars couldn’t be kept from the public consciousness for long.

Somewhere in this void floats Junkie XL, who has never been quite rock enough to break onto rock radio, and never quite electronic enough to get a ton of play in the clubs. His latest disc, Today, doesn’t shy away from this trend, in fact, it hits it head on. It floats wildly from tech house to trance, to something resembling a remixed indie rock song on the title track, and then veers straight into down tempo as the album closes. From track to track, you never know what you might be about to hear.

From the opening country guitar strumming of Youthful, it is obvious that Junkie XL has moved as far away from its semi hit Elvis remix, A Little Less Conversation, as possible. While on that single Junkie XL seemed to have given up and just gone out and copied Fatboy Slim out right, Youthful shimmers with an original house sound. It seems at the outset that Junkie XL has ditched its rock threads completely, with only a simple, quiet guitar riff tying everything to the past. This trend ends however as the ten minutes of the opening track come to a close and the pulsing break beats of Mushroom take over. Here Junkie XL has taken trance, and mixed it into a break blender for pleasant, danceable results. This all builds up to the single, Today, which goes in a completely opposite direction, beginning with a jumpy punk riff and skipping headlong into classic indie rock until the chorus comes in and smooths out the rhythm into a pop chorus. The song just works, and is probably the first time Junkie XL has really brought all his influences together in one simple package.

The second half of the album is moodier and less danceable. On Yesterday, a plaintive vocal is measure out over a steady chiming guitar and features some of the best lyrics Junkie XL has put down. Here all the elements of the album come together, vocals, beat, and guitar to form the emotional peak of the album and probably its best song. On We Become One the sweetness of Yesterday turns melancholy and a down tempo beat grinds everything to a fitting, albeit anti climactic close.

As the music fades out, one is left with a sense that this is Junkie XL’s best album. However, the first few tracks are much too scatter brained to form any real sense of cohesion and a couple of the tracks in the middle simply seem unfinished. While there is definite song craft evident here, one wonders what Junkie XL might accomplish if he were to venture a bit more out of his comfort zone and push the boundaries of a single genre of music.