Release Date: February 1
Length: 49:37
Genre: Electropop
For a band that has been around since the turn of the millenium, I am surprised Im not aware of these fellows from Great Britain. I actually found this record because an acquaintance of mine recommended I see a sweet music video by them (And yeah, it is pretty sweet. I'll link it at the end of the review). With so many albums now on my plate (14 so far from this year or so, prepare for some multi-reviews in the future), I sort of went for this album on impulse, mostly because of how much I enjoyed the music video. Hot Chip is a band focusing on mixes of pop, electronica, and something I read about on Wikipedia called "Alternative dance". Supposedly, it fuses electronic dance music with rock, which sounds pretty sweet in concept. Let's see if the album turns out to be as sweet.
One Life Stand is their fourth studio album and twelfth release in the past ten years, which is rather impressive for someone who is as well known (In other places) and has charted as much as Hot Chip. Before touching the album, something that I thought was kind of cool was the album cover itself, combining bright stripes of color with classical artwork, and is intended to be over the top.
My feelings on this album were actually pretty mixed. This is because I was unintentionally forced to compare this with another February release, Yeasayers Odd Blood, a candidate for my 2010 album of the year, which will probably end up getting reviewed in my December wrap up. Upon my first listen, One Life Stand was a great album, combining pop beats with a respectable level of catchiness and some lyrics. However, when I thought of Yeasayer after viewing the album cover, I scanned through Odd Blood quickly, and noticed something. Everything Hot Chip did, Yeasayer did....better. This is why I will do my best in the next paragraph to independently judge this album, but be warned that it will be pretty difficult.
The album starts strong. The opening song, Thieves in the Night is a song with a bit of catchy and a lot of mellow dance music thrown in. Unfortunately, this song has a tendency to drag on a minute longer than I would have liked (In Lady Gaga fashion, but not nearly as bad as her). This track is followed directly by Hand Me Down Your Love. This song is a fun song which has a catchy-yet-badass hook to it, and takes the place of my third favorite song, simply because it knows not to take itself to seriously. Going into I Feel Better (Aforementioned music video at bottom of page), we are given something that is very appealing to the ears. A catchy hook that doesn't push itself into the foreground, a heavy synth-string carrying the song, and fantastic vocals which vaguely remind me of an electronica take on Billy Joel's Only the Good Die Young. After this, the album drops in quality by a shocking degree. The title song is complete filler, being followed with two more filler songs being given incredibly mediocre lyrics, being immediately followed by the last good song on the album, Alley Cats. My favorite song on the album, this combines quality composition, a laidback presentation, and lyrics which I could only describe as "Adorable". But of course, this can only last so long, so we are then given filler, filler, and (Wait for it!) filler as the last three tracks on the album. It's actually more surprising that this wasn't simply made into an EP, in which form it would have been incredible, but an entire album for four noteworthy good songs?
With a comparison that forced itself to stick out like a sore thumb, here's my advice. When you have free time to listen, download this album. It's pretty cool. HOWEVER, you must make sure you listen to this album before you listen to Yeasayers Odd Blood, or else you feel quite a bit of unneeded disappointment.
Grade: C+
Notable Tracks: Thieves in the Night, Hand Me Down Your Love, I Feel Better, Alley Cats
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