Hot Chip – One Life Stand
4.6/10
Music’s societal role has shifted drastically since about the late 90s. Music, in itself, is no longer intended for intent, careful listening, but for pumping people up, and essentially, for evoking an aura of "coolness". Music is no longer about nuanced, unique elements that convey some abstract emotional feeling the artist feels he or she can best express through said music, but about honing towards one particular feeling that everyone seems to want – "life is good, I’m cool as hell, everything that’s going on right now embodies my image of cool, and this is how I want to spend my time".
If any band wants to become legitimately popular in this day and age, they have to conform to this requirement in some way or another. Rap does it great, and pop does a decent job too. Indie music specifically makes the people who listen to it feel like they’re better than those two other groups, which is an interesting take on the matter, but which also seems to do its job relatively well. Techno and electronic stuff can be nice and upbeat. But, anything innovative doesn’t work because it will make the listener feel stupid, and anything too personal doesn’t work because it’s lame, and if it inspires empathy in the listener, the listener feels lame. Unfortunately, real listeners want innovative and personal music.
Hot Chip does a half-decent job of reconciling these two issues by trying to mask them with as many satisfying hooks and frills as it can, carefully sliding in bits and pieces of musical prowess where others might not notice, perhaps because they were distracted by something else, perhaps an Alvin-and-The-Chipmunks-like squeal definitive of “We Have Love”? Yeah, kinda like that. Or how about the person gargling helium in the background of “Hand Me Down Your Love”?
But most of the band’s eccentricities do little harm. The slight overuse of synthetic instruments and ambient-slash-techno-bent beats is justified, because those instruments and beats were crisp, well tailored, and penetrating. The glamorous synthetic strings and autotune in “I Feel Better” are perhaps deemed acceptable because of the richness of the sounds and rhythmic play that develop throughout the song…but maybe not. Their sometimes cheesy catchiness is compensated by layers of subtle melodic variation that interest plenty. The title track is a true sign of this: try to follow the melody and see if you can wait long enough for it to repeat and for you to notice. The depth of the sounds in the beat of this song is also impressive.
The album starts out with the anthem-like “Thieves in The Night” that accurately sets the pace and feel of the album and has some more rich and detailed sounds. “Brother” is one of the worst tracks I’ve heard from Hot Chip. It’s simple and a bit childish, and reeks of a lack of effort. It’s the kind of thing I’ve heard too much of before in a number of places, and it’s wholly disinteresting. The lyrics are rudimentary and not that clever, and the melody feels uninspired. “Slush” is a bit stylistically novel. “Alley Cats” steps up game, though, providing an awkward but pleasant environment for a suspenseful buildup that resolves gradually and warmly. “We Have Love” is a bit too much like Eiffel 65, and “Keep Quiet” sounds like an outtake from Radiohead’s Kid A. “Take It In” clinches with a very pleasant but somewhat standard artsy/indie feel.
Hot Chip moves away from noisier electronic music pretty drastically with this release, instead leaning towards a bit of an odd combination of smooth, glamorous, and tasteless synth-pop, and some pretty phat (as in, they fulfill the aforementioned requirement for successful current music) beats. It’s a bit too layered and textured, poppy in an interrupting way, and lyrically silly to be truly accessible, but is definitely catchy, pulse-heavy, careful, and in some ways, interesting. As all closes, this album took time and effort to create, and so it serves its purpose.
