In Our Heads
London\'s Hot Chip has rediscovered the joy in its life and music. The somewhat somber glory of 2010\'s *One Life Stand*, however, can still be heard in spots. \"Look at Where We Are\" works over a wistful texture with an Alexis Taylor falsetto that\'s pure R&B. \"These Chains\" revolves on an \'80s synth-pop platform that recalls the romance of Duran Duran and New Order with a rich melody that\'s subtly inescapable. But the band hasn\'t forgotten the needs of the dance floor. The seven-minute \"Flutes\" builds slowly and carefully to a satisfying climax that calls up a striking melody to match the propulsive beats. \"Motion Sickness\" has a relentless but luxurious groove that\'s filled with sweet points of light and elliptical keyboard riffs. \"How Do You Do?\" works playfully with a mechanized, hypnotic bass line underneath the synth patches. Disco, techno, and synth-pop coalesce in unpredictable patterns to create music that\'s innovative yet still comforting and familiar.
Hot Chip's fifth full-length, a meditation on positivity, is their most playful and colorful record to date.
Hot Chip has always been a little quirky. The London synth-pop group is known for a noisy repertoire and an understated lyrical humor; its hooky dance-floor numbers are speckled with angular beats and clever genre skewing, informed by lines like “I’m sick of motherfuckers trying to tell me that they’re down with…
"Lend me your ideas," sing Hot Chip wryly, "but not too fully formed". Alex Wisgard hears their encyclopaedic grab-bag of classic electropop.
Hot Chip have revealed that their fourth album will be released on February 8 and will be named ‘One Life Stand’.
Hot Chip has gotten decidedly less hook-y and hilarious over the years. Not that there's anything wrong with that, necessarily, but it's interesting to listen to this, their fifth proper album, and compare it to a band that once said it would "break your legs, snap off your head." People grow up sometimes, and for a lesser group, that might equate with boring.
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Defiant Hot Chip rejoice in the possibilities of pop music with diverse blends of electro-synth, writes <strong>Ally Carnwath</strong>
The only reliable human standby amid the parade of dreary automation is Alexis Taylor’s voice.
Hot Chip are one of the UK's greatest exponents of quirky, compelling pop music – so why aren't they getting the credit they deserve, asks <strong>Alexis Petridis</strong>
Electronic pop success story return with their best yet. CD review by Thomas H Green