Hot Chip’s ‘One Life Stand’- Not your parent’s Electro-Pop

As most of the few readers who keep up with this blog know, I’m living in London for this semester through a study-abroad program. As part of my time here, I’m interning at a music promotion company called Chuff Media, which does PR for both local UK bands and US acts who need some help overseas. On my first day, my new boss Warren handed me a stack of promo and pre-release CDs so I could get a sense of the kind of acts the company represents. While most of the names were either rock or electronic acts I was completely unfamiliar with, I was particualry excited when I saw Hot Chip’s new record in the pile. Hot Chip are a five-man British band known for their up-beat synth-heavy indie pop, and while only marginally known back home in the US, they’re a much bigger deal here in the UK. I’ve seen billboards and posters announcing the coming release of this new record, entitled ‘One Life Stand’, all around London in anticipation of the Feb 1 release date on EMI. After three records which contained heavy beats and less-then-strong lyrics, I think I can here that this new one might just break Hot Chip big.

Starting with a low synth intro that gives way to a solo tom-tom build up, it’s pretty clear from the start that these guys put in some work on this one. When vocalist Alexis Taylor comes in with the first line, it’s also obvious that this is the kind of pop that you won’t mind getting stuck in your head. When the beat drops and the rest of the band fires full-throttle, it’s an early-disco/house party with a shining pop refrain and arena-guitar solo over the top, which is exactly what the description would imply: its freakin awesome.

What’s interesting about this new one is that the band utilizes more organic-sounding instruments this time around, shown in the acoustic-piano and kit intro of the record’s second track ‘Hand me Down Your Love’, which sounds like it could have easily been penned by a reserved Jack White just as much as chief-Chips Joe Goddard and Alexis Taylor. For the middle third of the album, the band checks the disco at the door for tracks like ‘Brother’s’, where an understated key line replaces the big beats and bigger synths Hot Chip are so known for. Using ‘Brothers’ as a buffer, the band then gets into some straight-up piano-ballad territory with the Elton John-ish ‘Slush’ and the chill-out track ‘Alley Cat’s’, the latter of which forgoes the synths and dance-tracks for some muted guitar and Bon-Iver chorus harmonies. These two songs are the best examples of the grown up sound and focused songwriting that the band has grown into. Even on club-ready grooves like ‘I Feel Better’, it doesn’t even matter that they use dance clichés like auto-tune and annoyingly fake strings, because the songs are really that good.

If nothing else, Hot Chip shows us that good songwriting is just good songwriting regardless of the sound of the band. These guys were always comfortable in the club, but now they prove that they’re just as comfortable at your local singer/songwriter open mic. Nice job gents. Keep it up.