HOT CHIP - Made in the Dark

By Simon Howell - The Listening Ear - 02/04/2008

I come here to praise Hot Chip, not to bury them. You see, there's a backlash going on. Many will have us thinking that these fine gentlemen are ironic hucksters, interpreting their infectious dance-pop songs as either perversions of "blue-eyed soul" or as obnoxious pranksters (depending on who you ask). I think there's a simpler explanation for Hot Chip's tendency to indulge every possible whim within -- and, occasionally, without -- the often sonically stifling realm of indie-dance; to these ears, the UK group are the closest thing we have to a new XTC. Where that group used new wave as a starting point for their flight-of-fancy explorations of the boundaries of pop and rock -- and some of the most inventive songwriting in pop history -- Hot Chip are taking their dance-based pop to places no one else will, or perhaps even can, dare.

Made in the Dark features the most dazzling opening tracks to grace an album yet this year, from the appropriately widescreen opener "Out at the Pictures," to the vaguely sinister, Todd Rundgren-assisted stomper "Shake a Fist," to the ridiculously good-natured single, "Ready for the Floor." The problems for many listeners begin with the admittedly eccentric "Bendable Poseable." The track delights in toying with rhythm and timbre in a way I can't recall hearing in a pop group for quite some time -- from Joe Goddard's deadpan pseudo-rap filling the rhythmic gaps (or "holes", as the lyrics would have it) in the first pre-"chorus," to a late key change accompanied by head-spinning synth slides. This deranged cacophony, while too much for some, actually sets the tone quite nicely for the album's best ballad, "We're Looking for a Lot of Love," which doesn't quite reach the seductive heights of The Warning's "Look After Me," but instead succeeds more generally as an RnB ballad so straightforward and flawlessly executed that's it's easy to imagine R. Kelly making a mega-hit out of it -- with melismatic embellishment, of course.

The album's second half, following the strangely under-produced but nevertheless effective title ballad, is more problematic. "One Pure Thought" is solid enough as the group's most "rock" song yet, but there's something off-putting about the opening minutes, where its opening riff gives way to a stuttering rhythm track and an insistent vocal chant. The track finds its footing eventually, but remains a bit of a slog compared to the confidently constructed pop tunes we've already heard. In fact, only the LCD Soundsystem swagger of "Hold On" and the off-kilter pop of "Wrestlers" (which recalls departed heroes The Beta Band) match the infectious energy of that opening run. Made in the Dark turns out to be the album equivalent of Spielberg's A.I. -- if you just pretend the thing ends when Haley Joel Osment is trapped on the bottom of the ocean (here represented by "Wrestlers"), you'll have a much more satisfying time. The funny thing is, though, that even if you hated A.I. you probably still remember it reasonably well. Hot Chip, too, manage to stay stuck in the minds of even their detractors. In the music world, at least, that's an asset anyone would be happy to possess.

Tune in to A Listening Ear with Simon every Tuesday from 1pm - 2pm