BBC Review
Once they could walk on water, but here it sounds like they’re treading it.
Chris Beanland 2010-01-26
We once thought Hot Chip could walk on water – but half of the songs on this album sound like a band treading it instead.
So what’s happened between their last long-player, 2008’s Made in the Dark, and this new collection? The intensely likeable, clever, visionary quintet are undoubtedly one of Britain's musical success stories of the last decade, and their Mercury-nominated 2006 outing The Warning can still take your breath away with its brilliance. But, of the ten tracks on this fourth album of electro-pop, five should have been left out on a Monday morning with the bins.
Those clangers: Hand Me Down Your Love, Keep Quiet, Brothers, Alley Cats and Slush. There's a bad pop feeling about all five – like their makers have aimed for accessibility but muddled immediacy for inanity. The latter three are unusually cloying ballads that, instead of making you feel soppy, leave you wanting to shake a fist (pun intended). Slush is so cringe-inducingly awful you have to pinch yourself to check it's for real.
Inevitably, because half of the album stinks it completely tarnishes the good songs. If you only listen to the other five songs here, then you get a selection of thoroughly enjoyable new Hot Chip tracks. Trim the fat and you’d be left with a cracking EP's worth of material.
We Have Love and I Feel Better are particularly exhilarating: 90s house stomps that precisely summon up the spirit of Black Box and S'Express. Elsewhere, the album's title track is pure pop done perfectly. These successes make the odd missteps all the more irritating – it’s obvious Hot Chip can craft the finest fare, but have the band been getting a bit too acquainted with their pipes and slippers?
This is an imbalanced record, and one that leaves you frustrated rather than elated. But despite the blips, they have dished up at least two cerebral bangers here. This is what they do best – and why tracks like Hold On and Over and Over, proffered on their previous two records, don't lose anything in their continuing ubiquity. Hot Chip are a band you can still believe in. Let's hope that in the future they preach dancefloor domination from the pulpit, instead of sermonising on slightly sickly love songs.
As for now, at least, they seem a little less like Gods and more like mortal men whose synths don't always have all the answers.
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Comment number 1.
At 22:33 30th Jan 2010, Judas72 wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 2.
At 22:48 30th Jan 2010, Judas72 wrote:What an imbecile!
"Slush is so cringe-inducingly awful you have to pinch yourself to check it's for real." Here's a clue - the song's called Slush. Do you really suppose it's gonna be anything other than slushy? I personally found the song highly entertaining.
"have the band been getting a bit too acquainted with their pipes and slippers?" or has Chris "Half-Baked" Beanland been a bit too acquainted with a hash pipe and kippers?
Imho Hot Chip have returned with yet another collection of off-kilter and highly entertaining tunes... whereas the BBC return with yet another pile of dog's doo dah! Get it sorted!
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Comment number 3.
At 18:21 2nd Feb 2010, orpetil wrote:Can't agree with that review. IMHO Alley Cats is one of the best songs on the album. The production is a bit odd - excessively 'light' and stripped back to the extent that some of the harmonies seem to be plain missing; I prefer the live version - but it's still a beautiful track.
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Comment number 4.
At 13:19 11th Feb 2010, natp wrote:Slush is the only song I have heard from the album (Lamacq played it last week) It sounded good to me! Good enough that I will pick up the album on Saturday anyway.
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Comment number 5.
At 17:26 11th Feb 2010, spiller wrote:How wrong can you be? This album a stunningly beautiful album, 50 minutes of pure pleasure, over far too soon. The reviewer is obviously uncomfortable with songs about monogamous love so it's no wonder that the maturity of this album passes him by. A fabulous combination of dance-pop (those opening bars of the title track send a shiver down my spine - play it loud) balladry (Slush and Alley Cat are among their loveliest songs) and finishing with the soaring, anthemic Take It In.
Probably their best yet. Can't wait to hear it live.
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Comment number 6.
At 20:45 1st Mar 2010, ikan wrote:Chris Beanland, please listen to this album again.
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Comment number 7.
At 23:16 20th Mar 2010, caterine wrote:you are underestimating this album way too much. I don't even know what to say but only: you should listen to it, really.
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Comment number 8.
At 16:30 22nd Apr 2010, catherine wrote:I agree with the reviewer here. The album is bad. As much as they might want to coat their songs with irony and tongue in cheek it does not hide the fact that alot of the songs are quite simply badly written and soon really boring. Songs like 'I feel better' get that balance between pastiche and good pop perfectly but the rest of the songs, and particularly the second half, make me want to smash something they're so persistent in their mediocrity. It also doesn't hide the fact that at the heart of these songs is absolutely nothing. Meaningless Hollowed out tunes dominate this album.
The whole album is about as progressive to pop music as the BNP is to positive race relations in Britain. If you want top notch electronica sell this Album and buy the new Caribou album or head back to the 80s to when these synth sounds were new and meant something.
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