Gently straddling the border between electronic and wave stands this English band. As usual, the vocals are shared between the higher-pitched Alexis Taylor and the more mellow voiced Joe Goddard and, as always, the songs benefit from the dichotomy.


Though a lot of the songs are obviously electronics based, their composition and presentation seems more in line with rock music. A lot of their preparation for the album came from extended time in the studio, not something you necessarily expect from an “electronic” band.

The really nice thing, to me, is that each of these songs is an individual on this album, yet it remains distinctively a Hot Chip release.

Some songs seem taken from a house music kind of sensibility (even a Giorgio Moroder/Donna Summer kind of sound on track 8) while others are practically wave ballads.

Special note: Tracks 2, 4 and 6 feature Charles Hayword of This Heat on drums and vox (the latter only on track 6).

1++++(KICK ASS, oscillators), 2+++(nice mix & strings), 3++(electro-dance, auto-tune), 4+++(single, great chorus), 5++(pretty, nice build), 6+++(Hayward on back-up vox, also super pretty ballad), 7++++(gorgeous, low-key yet upbeat), 8 (least favorite track), 9++(interesting percussion, solid), 10+++(nice mix of styles)