Hot Chip - One Life Stand [2010 - Astralwerks]

My biggest beef with British electro-nerds Hot Chip has always been that they've never made a consistent album. Their debut Coming on Strong [2005] and The Warning [2006] were both only half-good albums. Their 2008 effort Made in the Dark showed their immense potential for creating pop songs that were both danceable and heartfelt, without being overly sentimental; yet it was still only 3/4 of a good album. Just when things picked up, the mood was ground to a halt with the inclusion of too many slow ballads. And this has been Hot Chip's greatest predicament: they belong to a genre that has been historically single-heavy and has never stressed the importance of creating full-length albums that are solid from front to back. The attitude towards making electronic music has changed drastically during the past decade, as contemporaries such as LCD Soundsystem, Caribou, and Phoenix made some of the best albums of the 2000s. Needless to say, relying solely on singles isn’t enough anymore; Hot Chip fully realize this on One Life Stand, as they have finally progressed to the point of making a complete album.

The appeal of Hot Chip has always been their wide-eyed and, for lack of a better term, stupid innocence. “Over and Over,” “Boy from School,” and “Ready for the Floor” are all so innately catchy and ambitiously optimistic that it’s often easy to disregard how stupid the lyrics or messages of the songs are. On One Life Stand Hot Chip mix their best element (the pulsating four-on-the-floor beats) with a refined maturation. They still fully embrace stupid party sentiment on the majority of the songs, but there is a running theme of longing for happiness and lasting love. Songs like “Hand Me Down Your Love,” “Thieves in the Night” and the title track revolve around the idea of enjoying life while embracing the fact that it could end at any minute—to find someone you love and enjoy your life with them.

There is still a fair share of slower ballads, but this time around they are better placed on the album. “I Feel Better” (which sounds like it was taken directly from a mixtape from 1991 that belonged to your mom) and “Alley Cats” keep the album moving along without derailing the grooves established by the dance numbers. The middle of the album contains the majority of the slower songs, but it begins and ends with some of their most danceable numbers. “We Have Love” is easily the most euphoric of the dance numbers and will be sure to instantly fill a dance floor.

Perhaps it is placement that has prevented Hot Chip from making a consistent album. They seem to have realized this on their fourth album, as One Life Stand doesn’t subject the listener to the rollercoaster ups-and-downs of combining dance songs with ballads back-to-back. The songs on One Life Stand blend better then they ever have, and for the first time, Hot Chip has made a solid album front-to-back.


Overall: 88/100

Best Moments:
“We Have Love”
“Hand Me Down Your Love”
“One Life Stand”
“Thieves in the Night”
“Alley Cats”