Hot Chip’s gift with a catchy melody has been as reliable as that monkey with a miniature cymbal in their hit Over and Over but can their latest album – One Life Stand – keep up their pitch perfect pop track record. We slapped on our Hifiman HE-5 headphones to see whether One Life Stand would make us feel the earth move or send us to sleep.
Hot Chip make cerebral dance music and it’s a niche they’ve taken to pretty effectively over their previous three albums, Coming Up Strong, The Warning and Made In The Dark. It was The Warning’s smash hit Over And Over that brought them to TV show soundtracking, advert powering pop stars but Made In The Dark’s Ready For The Floor cemented that position.
With One Life Stand, Hot Chip have taken their penchant for electro-pop and injected a serious strain of sentiment. On their first album they delivered a hymn to Prince (Down With Prince), now with One Life Stand’s title track, lead singer Alexis Taylor channels the Purple One’s smoothest instincts. The soppy single finds him crooning, “I only wanna be your one life stand/Tell me, do you stand by your man?” It’s catchy but irritating.
It’s songs like the opening track Thieves In The Night that reveal Hot Chip’s true skill – a big pop stomp that builds over six minutes to a dance floor dominating groove. Meanwhile the disco of We Have Love injects a harder edge into One Life Stand saving it from the emotion suggested by another track, Slush.
Another element that has always made Hot Chip stand out is their slightly geeky, often surreal lyrical details. One Life Stand maintains that tradition. Alley Cats, another stripped-back electro-ballad includes the head spinning lyric: “Wear each other’s heads like hats/ speak in tongues like alley cats/ cradle them in both our laps/ and we die alone.” We’re not sure what it means but we like it.
Hot Chip haven’t lost their gift for perfect pop melodies and their slightly eccentric ways continue to give them an edge. One Life Stand (the single) is likely to be battered into the ground with radio play and on TV soundtracks but the album has enough charm to transcend the title track’s slightly sickly quality.
Buy Hot Chip’s One Life Stand from iTunes for £7.99
Buy Hot Chip’s One Life Stand from Amazon for £7.99
Buy Hot Chip’s One Life Stand from 7Digital for £5
