Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

Hot Chip enter this new decade in an awkward place. Made In The Dark their third full length LP was their most commercially accessible and successful record to date, but it left much their core fan base cold. While not without it's charms Made In The Dark felt like a watered down and almost cynical follow up to the creative break through The Warning. This didn't stop Hot Chip courting mainstream success with Ready For The Floor turning into a full fledged sensation, which actual managed to dislodge Over And Over as the bands definitive hit (in large part thanks to an uber stylish video). However the Jonathan Ross/Radio One audience is often fickle and their attention quickly turns to the next shiny new act on the horizon. To make matters worse it seemed that since the afore mention break through Joe Goddard has spent more time as writer's for hire, dispensing diamond studded disco classics like Stuck On Repeat to Little Boots, rather than giving his full attention to Hot Chip itself. So it's with this back drop that Hot Chip's latest offering One Life Stand arrives and it's perhaps unsurprising that there has been little buzz. One Life Stand therefore finds itself in the unenviable position of having to earn it's place in the public consciousness without an all conqueroring single to sweep the record effortlessly to the top of the charts.

Thankfully this is Hot Chip and when the pressure is on and they have to deliver there are no song writers more trustworthy than Joe Goddard and Alexis Taylor. One Life Stand immediately imposes itself and almost instantaneously feels more vital than Made In The Dark. Thieves In The Night kick starts the album and sets the tone perfectly, encapsulating the album as a whole. It has everything that makes this album, and Hot Chip as a whole so great; it starts with a thudding bass pedal to grab your attention before the group launch into one of the most gloriously addictive album openers of recent years. Behind a suitably groovy backing track Alexis' vocals goes to work. His voice cuts across the backing track divinely it's calm and unassuming managing to convey deep emotion and sincerity without ever having to strain or grand stand. The track is pitched perfectly between a wannabe club banger, a radio slayer and a heartfelt indie anthem. The chorus is truly remarkable as Hot Chip appear to have let their guard down displaying their inner fragility with a heart breaking chorus "Happiness Is What We All Want, May It Be That We Don't All Want". The tone has been set, and the album effectively splits in to two distinct sections from here on in.

The first half of One Life Stand is built around a string of sure fire singles, complete with slick hooks that feel somewhat retrospective without sounding remotely dated. In this section you first notice Hot Chip's real leap forward creatively. Goddard has truly said good bye to obtuse song writing, these new pop gems no longer rely on slick sound bytes, instead he opens up his heart and produces a series of grand gestures that ramp up the emotional stakes. Early stand outs Hand Me Down Your Love and I Feel Better both reach wonderfully emotive climaxes. The former pleads desperately "I've Known For A Long Time, You Are My Love Line, So Why Can't I Be Bright Like My Lover's Light?", whereas the latter offers a more uplifting seize the day message (albeit against a dark background) "I Only Want One Life...Nothing Is Wasted and Life Is Worth Living...Everything's Nothing and Nothing Is Ours". Both tracks use string sections gloriously adding remarkable depth and polish to their usually lo-fi and squelchy sound. The whole first half of the album has been consumed by love and relationships concluding with the starry eyed wish to be "Your One Life Stand".

The second half of the LP sees all this emotion spill over into heart break as One Life Stand becomes absorb by melancholy and tragedy. Slush which almost feels like a parody at first before revealing it's power house core which tugs remorselessly at your heartstrings. It deals with age, stress and how it takes it's toll on even the most dreamy relationship, giving the impression that the wide eyed optimism of I Feel Better has come full circle and been replaced by age and routine. With Alexis suggesting that remembering their love is now the most important task left in his life. Alleycats is one of the albums most sombre moments, as the usually in your face electronic hooks are toned down allowing Goddard to tackle his most private and intimate subject matter to date. He explores the death of someone he loved, he's reported as saying that this was a song written for his late mother, and it proves to be the down beat centre piece of One Life Stand's second half. We Have Love almost feels like a throw away by contrast, with it's trademark skipping beat and obvious hooks, but they had to offer something to lighten the mood (well sort of) before Goddard unleashes another low-key atmospheric piece in the form of Keep Quiet.

Take It In serves as an apt final statement, Goddard closes an album where his own heart ache has loomed large with a more existential experience that recalls the cooling airy pop of the mid nineties. The track feels completely weightless and is almost a release from an album that has been over wrought by emotion. All this heart break and deep emotion has proved remarkably purposeful; it has simultaneous helped Hot Chip evolve both their song writing palette while also tying One Life Stand together as a single piece, creating Hot Chip's most coherent and focused effort to date. It may lack the rough around the edges underdog charm of Come On Strong and The Warning but in sacrificing their ice cool facade they've managed to push through to the next level. Before One Life Stand Hot Chip could be considered, in Alexis own words, "a balloon with air escaping, nothing but a play thing" but now Hot Chip are no longer simply ice cold dance floor conqueror's they now set themselves alongside Wilco and the other great songwriters of the new millennium. Of course Hot Chip still have their feet firmly on the dance floor and their fingers on the pulse, but One Life Stand may just be the first step towards immortality and the elusive masterpiece they've always threaten to make. But unfortunately once again we'll just have to wait and see, the next LP can't come soon enough.