HOT CHIP GROW UP

There aren’t many bands that can do what Hot Chip do. Since releasing their first album, "Coming on Strong" in 2004, they have become masters of the clever-kitsch soundtrack, full of electro-pop, hip hop and Prince-like soul. And everything comes garnished with the left-field lyrics and soul-boy falsetto of Alexis Taylor, the band's lead singer. Hot Chip’s last couple of albums—2006’s "The Warning" and 2008’s "Made In The Dark"—were exercises in eclecticism. They brimmed with edgy, kaleidoscopic disco-funk and kooky dance-floor hits, such as “Over and Over”, “Ready For The Floor”, “The Warning” and the heartfelt “Boy From School”. "One Life Stand", their new album, is different. The band have reined in some of their more excitable urges to produce something less fidgety and more coherent. Unlike their earlier songs, which careened off each other and landed on the dance floor like mad spinning tops, these form an orderly British queue. Each somehow prefigures the next. Sound boring? The good news is that these tracks are still destined for the discotheque. The album opens with the exuberant synthpop of “Thieves In The Night”, and moves on to the plangent piano and thrusting drums of “Hand Me Down Your Love”, the sawing, soaring strings of “I Feel Better” and the pounding steel drum of the title track, on which Taylor declares the virtues of long-term commitment. After this barrage of opening salvos the mood changes with the sombre “Brothers” and “Slush,” an R&B-style ballad. Hot Chip fans know the band’s penchant for balladry, and this is one of their bravest: a silky Memphis groove that stands in stark contrast with the less striking mellotronica of “Keep Quiet”. The band soon bring back the party with the loose-limbed disco-funk of “Alley Cats”, the stuttering “We Have Love” and the classy finale “Take Me In”, a song in which the initial tense atmosphere breaks into an unashamedly euphoric chorus. While it's not as wild or angular as its predecessors, "One Life Stand" is actually more fun. After sitting on the fence for a couple of albums, Taylor and his writing partner Jo Goddard have finally decided they are proper pop songwriters, and have stopped fussing too much about what's "cool". As it turns out they’ve managed to get the best of both worlds. "One Life Stand" (EMI) by Hot Chip, out now ~ PAUL SULLIVAN