This came out in 2005 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
A little star power goes a long way. At least it does with Thievery Corporation.
Not to take anything away from the downtempo D.C. dance duo of Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, but their albums can sound pretty samey after a while. And their sixth release The Cosmic Game, with its tragically hip synthesis of overused sounds and styles — acid-jazz and trip-hop, reggae and dub, samba and bossa nova, Indian and world beat — is mostly no different. Until the VIP guests show up, that is. Flaming Lips kick things off with a little of their trademark psychedelic swirl, Perry Farrell gets down in a rub-a-dub stylee and David Byrne kicks things up a notch with some artsy afrobeat. And their presence seems to raise the bar for the entire set, spurring the Corp. to craft sharper hooks, deeper grooves and tighter, more song-oriented tracks than they have before. As the philosopher Homer J. once put it, celebrities — is there anything they can’t do?
