Song · The Chemical Brothers
“Setting Sun” by The Chemical Brothers
From the album Dig Your Own Hole (1997)
“Setting Sun” by The Chemical Brothers appears on 14 radio countdowns from 12 stations between 1996 and 2023. It was first released in 1997 on the album Dig Your Own Hole. Its best result is #26 on the Triple J Hottest 100 of 1996. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #125 alternative song of 1996 and #3,207 alternative song of all time.
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Video from YouTube (ChemicalBrothersVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Setting Sun" was the first taste of Dig Your Own Hole, the Chemical Brothers' second album, arriving in 1996 with Noel Gallagher of Oasis on vocals, and it sounds like Britpop being dragged through a warehouse rave by the collar. Gallagher wrote it with Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, the duo produced it themselves, and the result is a big-beat squall: breakbeats crashing like a demolition crew, noise piling up on noise, and Gallagher's voice drifting through the din as if it had wandered in from a vintage psychedelic record.
British radio barely touched it, and it didn't matter: it sold 99,000 copies in its first week and went straight in at number one on the UK Singles Chart, with top-10 placings in Finland, Ireland and Sweden. Nic Goffey and Dominic Hawley shot the video in London, and in 2022 Rolling Stone put it on its list of the 200 greatest dance songs ever.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 90 | WHFS Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD | WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1996 | 99 |
| 1996 | 99 | 107.7 The End Seattle, WA | The End Top 107 Songs of 1996 | 107 |
| 1996 | 97 | WBER Rochester, NY | WBER Listener Countdown 1996 | 100 |
| 1996 | 26 | Triple J Australia (national) | Triple J Hottest 100 of 1996 | 100 |
| 1997 | 90 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1997 | 107 |
| 1997 | 100 | WBER Rochester, NY | WBER Listener Countdown 1997 | 99 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 483 | Q101 | Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1017 |
| 1999 | 680 | 107.7 The End | The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1077 |
| 1999 | 375 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1999) | 500 |
| 1999 | 245 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (November 1999) | 1002 |
| 2019 | 562 | KEXP | KEXP Listeners' Favorite Songs of All Time | 627 |
| 2021 | 805 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '90s | 908 |
| 2022 | 567 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 900 Songs of the '90s | 900 |
| 2023 | 405 | The Current | The Current's 893 Essential Songs of the '90s | 893 |
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