(Domino)
There is something to be said for the
slow-burning, hard-won success, rather than overnight fame.
For over a decade the Hot Chip have
been a consistently great live act, along with string of strong
albums behind them seemingly gaining wider popularity with each one
with a style that brings together LCD Soundsystem's wordy indie dance
music, with Prince's funk and love of classic pop and electronic
music. Since 2004's Coming on Strong the band have hardly put
a foot wrong and have even managed to bother the UK charts with some
of their bigger singles like Ready For The Floor.
With the group's sixth album Why
Make Sense?, which has a
title that is surely a nod to Talking Head's concert movie Stop
Making Sense, Hot Chip are starting to feel like an established
part of the British music scene, more so than just about any other
band that has emerged over the last ten years.
Huarache Nights kicks of the album,
with Hot Chip in dance floor mode. Built around a chunky bass sound,
Alexis Taylor's familiar soft, soulful vocals enter, though vocoder
vocals provide the big hooks, as robot voices chanting 'Replace us
with the things that do the job better' hinting at an automated
future. Why Make Sense? starts with a big dance track, but
it's not the best representation of the sounds of electronic soul and
funk that lies through the albums heart. The following track, Love Is
The Future, with it's playful, retro synth chords bouncing about a
light shuffling beat show more of the influence of late 70's and
early 80's. The group even fit in a guest verse De La Soul’s
Posdnuos before the chorus emerges for the song's finale, backed by
disco ready strings, a sound which reappears throughout Why Make
Sense?.
Started Right has a keyboard sound
straight out of Superstitious era Stevie Wonder, as the band prove to
be as versatile in taking cues from measured pop as they do with
obscure dance records.
In fact the band seem to shine in
merging disparate sounds into a coherent, catchy whole as tracks like
Easy To Get effortlessly mixes up guitar funk before acid bass lines
take over for the songs outro or the album's title track, which seems
to carry echoes of prog rock and Brian Eno's early solo records with
its huge drum stomp and building synthesizer arpeggios.
The band's second single from the
album, Need You Now, might well be one of the band's best single to
date. The track is equal parts a throw back to classic house euphoria
whilst not sounding too far away from the likes of Disclosure. Set
around an irresistibly powerful vocal sample from Sinnamon 1983 track
I Need You Now for the album's big hook whilst Taylor's vocals
compliment perfectly with a quiet desperation in the verses.
It's the personal and simple messages
that stand out on an album that is a little leaner than a lot of
their other releases and better for it. Touches of other influences
emerge all over Why Make Sense? but the is a sense of honesty
and a lack of cynicism that Hot Chip have kept throughout their
career, that helps set them apart.
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