RHUM

Hot Chip have to be one of the most unlikeliest of success stories: a group of unrepentantly middle class geeks mashing up a mix of pastiche pop, maudlin-yet-mischievous love songs and brainy club bangers. And yet, despite – or perhaps in spite of – their anti-MTV image, they now stand as one of Britain’s biggest bands, loved by the critics and chart-buying public alike (not to mention a huge US following). One Life Stand is the Chip’s fourth studio album, and one that sees them primed for global domination.

Song writing duo Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard have always possessed the uncanny knack of being anthemic without resorting to irritating anathema. Cannily producing simple, hum-able hooks and rousing stomp-a-long choruses, that still sound fresh a hundred cheap discotheque DJs later, with an awkward posture of coy nonchalance. And this album is no different. When it’s great it’s really, really great – sophisticated synthpop with a high IQ but devoid of ego or artifice.

However, depressingly, Hot Chip also seem determined to grow up a little on One Life Stand. One of the band’s most enduring qualities has always been their humour. They are like the Woody Allen of electro: gently mocking themselves and the institution they represent but without the caveat of slapstick prat-falls, and always showing genuine love and respect for their art. This album seems to loose sight of that.

Perhaps they decided it was time to stop hiding behind the harlequin’s mask, or that after three albums a change was needed. All of this is laudable. But when you get bogged down in the slushy mush of One Night Stand’s mid-section and the all-too-predictable (almost…gasp…whimsical) refrains on love and commitment, you’ll be longing for the days when five fresh-faced nerds rhymed “peelin' potatoes” with “sonic alligators” while gleefully commenting on how “only Stevie Wonder sees the same things” and using a makeshift kazoo to outro the track.

3/5

One Night stand is out now thorugh EMI.

Standout Tracks: Thieves in the Night, One Life Stand, Take It In