Hot Chip: Made in the Dark
DFA/Astralwerks
2008
Rating:


As fans of "The Warning" know, Hot Chip will break your legs and chop off your head, but few may know the electronica group can also break your heart.

The Hot Chip of "Made in the Dark" will still melt your brain, though. Opener "Out at the Pictures" makes that abundantly clear. Videogame synths gradually build and speed up until after more than a minute the percussion comes crashing in to turn the song into a full-on banger to listen to out at the disco. "Shake a Fist" slinks in with big-bottom beats worthy of Timbaland, but is almost derailed by a curious sample of Todd Rundgren playing "Sounds from the Studio" on his 1972 magnum opus "Something/Anything?" The song quickly rights itself as soon as the "game" begins with an attack of '80s electronic noise that soon melds back into the original beat and adds a third rhythmic movement. "Bendable Posable" is even more bass-fueled and mildly sinister. "Hold On" does James Murphy proud with its propulsive, galloping pulse, and it contains yet more physical threats ("Sir, I've a good mind to take you outside").

Gem "Ready for the Floor" seamlessly combines eletronica with pop. Squelching bass eventually gives way to brighter Casiotones and fluttering notes. Alexis Taylor sings about trying to get a wallflower to dance with him and amusingly references Tim Burton's "Batman" with the line "You're my number one guy." The song is vivid and witty, the perfect way to get indie kids and dance kids to move together. "One Pure Thought" even opens with a great guitar line that continues through a Latin American disco beat.

"Made in the Dark" elevates the group's game because it has, shockingly, mastered the ballad. Blue-eyed soul though it may be, the title track is a mightily effective song of break-up and tentative make-up. The song is stripped down to guitar and keyboard, with only a simple drum machine beat for the rhythm section. For "The Privacy of Our Love," finger snaps keep time, while "Whistle for Will" only has somber synthesizers. "We're Looking for a Lot of Love" is far more involved and perhaps the album's most affecting song. Echoing "Oohs" and a single stray guitar note, a Caribbean rhythm and a somber synth organ build into a hymn of being figuratively (or perhaps literally) burnt at the stake by a lover.

Hot Chip has always been cheeky, but with "Made in the Dark," the group has finally found its heart.

Posted Saturday, February 9, 2008

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/music/hot.chip/made.in.the.dark