28 January 2013

28th Jan - Hot Chip's One Life Stand


Artist – Album: Hot Chip – One Life Stand
Released: 28th January 2010
Sounds Like: One ripe band

In the two years between 2008’s bouncy Made in the Dark and this album, Hot Chip seemed to have matured a bit and lost their way to the dancefloor. Whereas the previous album had indietronica belters such as ‘Ready for the Floor’ and ‘One Pure Thought’ and 2006’s The Warning was loaded with dance floor fillers, this album contains nothing so unapologetically boogie-able.

To be fair, for the most part this is more of the same from the London lads; their trademark delicate fusion of disco synthpop and bittersweet vulnerable vocals remains in full force. The first half of the album contains the stronger tracks: ‘Hand Me Down Your Love’ could still get you shaking your booty, and ‘I Feel Better’ and ‘One Life Stand’ both successfully blend robotic verses with rousing choruses. That said, even the concept of the title track – a more permanent version of a one night stand – hints to the fact that they’re now happily settling down.

Unfortunately, these highlights aren’t backed up by a good enough rest of the album. ‘Brothers’ is schmaltzy and ‘Slush’ is slushy. ‘Alley Cats’ is good, but I can’t even recall what the last three tracks sound like, despite listening to them repeatedly today whilst playing FIFA.

Hot Chip are growing up and it makes sense that they can’t be getting on down like they used to. I like to think of this as more of a transitional album. It’s pretty good but the boys aren’t done yet.

Albumaday... rating:   6/10

1.       Thieves in the Night – 6:09
2.       Hand Me Down Your Love – 4:33
3.       I Feel Better – 4:41
4.       One Life Stand – 5:23
5.       Brothers – 4:21
6.       Slush – 6:29
7.       Alley Cats – 5:21
8.       We Have Love – 4:28
9.       Keep Quiet – 4:02
10.   Take It In – 4:10

Listen to ‘Hand Me Down Your Love’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9c9gHA1gqQ


No comments:

Post a Comment