“Star Guitar” by The Chemical Brothers

"Star Guitar", the second single from the Chemical Brothers' fourth album, Come with Us, in 2002, wears its source in its name. Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons built it on a four-bar snatch of acoustic guitar from the start of David Bowie's "Starman", ran that loop through nearly the whole track and piled everything else on top, an electronic sample of "Fly to Venus" by Electronic System included. Beverley Skeete provides the vocal.

It glides along at 127 beats per minute in F major, more daydream than stomp. Pitchfork's Nathan Rooney took it as the pair stepping down from their perch as big beat gods and judged it slight, though nowhere near as empty as "Hoops", the track that follows it. It still reached eight on the UK Singles Chart and topped the UK Dance Chart.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.