So. Eight years have passed for Basement Jaxx since Rooty, the album that spawned the ubiquitous “Where's Your Head At?”. An entire decade has actually passed since their first full length album together, in which time they have along the success of their own music become in demand re-mixers. Justin Timberlake, Missy Elliot and Sophie-Ellis Bextor have been among the artists who have best utilised their talents.Winding back to 2009, and Messrs Buxton and Ratcliffe have spent the last year putting together album number five under their own name. Scars continues on from where the last two Basement Jaxx efforts left off; a dizzying blend of supporting artists brought together uniformly under a terrifying album cover. It appears to depict an owl in a suit of armour on human shoulders. And yet, this about as intimidating as a cup of tea compared to the album as a whole. Put it this way ”“ Yoko Ono's on it.The opening salvo will feel familiar ”“ big bouncing rhythms, and repetitions on catchy melodies. Very similar to that track they must be sick of hearing about. The titular opener sets the stage well for this, a baton that's well and truly carried by “Raindrops” and “She's No Good”. Both are insanely catchy, either could have been the lead off single. The former manages to scrape this accolade.You get the first hint that this isn't your lot though, with “Saga”, a piece of music not a million miles away from the plinky plonk melodies that Madness made their own. “My Turn” features bizarre laughter loops at its close, and then we are plunged into downbeat organs and ponderous vocals on “A Possibility”. The pace doubles, and from here its all brass stabs and processed vocals. Bizarre titles. Thumping bass lines and melodies that get more and more eccentric.The tracks become less predictable in their structures, the rhythms battering out whatever pattern feels right at any given moment. It's actually really quite abstract stuff, particularly highlighted during “Day of the Sunflowers (We March On)”. If the album were one song, its end, “Gimmie Somethin' True”, almost totally abandons the verses and choruses and twiddly, slightly silly mid-section for a Mediterranean guitar overlay and abrupt outro.Put this way, and you start to see that Scars is truly a mixed bag. For this alone, Basement Jaxx deserve some credit. They have made a conscientious effort to mix things up as much as possible, understanding that an album isn't necessarily a repeated mould. The last review I personally wrote for this website, the new Broadway Calls album, was the complete opposite of this and relied on regurgitating the same formula again and again. In isolation it sounded fine, but cobbling it together on a CD made for a mildly nauseating half hour.In this case, the duo have perfectly complimented their original sounds with some fairly liberal minded variation. It's vice versa moment with the Broadway Calls record is that some of these tracks can't be listened to on their own. In the sense that you could technically hear “Stay Close” ad infinitum without realising its a Basement Jaxx song. But that is what the expertly crafted singles are about. It's why “Raindrops” is the lead of these. Those opening tracks are the bread and butter, before the move onto an intriguing main course. All in all, a solid, listen-able effort, with particularly strong replay value.