Hot Chip - In Our Heads` - Printable Version +- Music Discussion (https://www.music-discussion.com) +-- Forum: Music Discussion (https://www.music-discussion.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=4) +--- Forum: Alternative (https://www.music-discussion.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=11) +--- Thread: Hot Chip - In Our Heads` (/showthread.php?tid=7151)

Hot Chip - In Our Heads` - Music Head - 14-06-2012 online listen better than I expected not as dance heavy as the last one just misses again 1.6 from me and a converted 2.6 from the pros at allmusic from the album - Night & Day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxg2JbWA7Nk released June 12th, 2012 Bio - from allmusic Hailing from London, Hot Chip entered the picture with the release of their 2000 debut, Mexico. The EP was issued by Victory Garden Records, a label owned and operated by members of London's resident lo-fi psychedelic rock institution Southall Riot. The Mexico EP was a hypnotic wash of subtle -- nearly subliminal -- pulse-like techno beats, acoustic guitars, and plinky pianos, but the vocals were the true star of the show (no small feat in a musical climate overrun with disaffected Lou Reed-esque mumblers and bland Eddie Vedder impersonators). The voices of Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard are a fine study in contrast. Taylor offers dreamy, effortless falsettos that cut to the heart of the beauty of performers like Jeff Buckley and Nick Drake (minus any of the pretentiousness of Radiohead or even Coldplay, or the bland vocal acrobatics of Remy Zero). Meanwhile, scattered throughout the record (and in the occasional duet), Goddard offers a tone that sounds a bit more world-weary and at times almost gruff in comparison to Taylor, calling to mind Damon Albarn's cool monotone tendencies. Self-released by Hot Chip in 2002, Sanfrandisco E-Pee showed the band dabbling in more playful sounds, from the beatbox dubbing of the title track to the closing notes of "Fanta," in which Taylor pleads with the listener to "make sounds of the summer." There are moments of gorgeous melancholy as well, but on the whole, the album feels a bit more hopeful than Mexico did. The group signed to revered N.Y.C. record label DFA in 2005 and released the Over and Over EP, as well as the excellent 2006 full-length The Warning. Hot Chip kept busy in 2007 by supporting The Warning with singles and consistent touring, and released a DJ-Kicks mix album. Late that year, the single "Ready for the Floor" heralded the arrival of Made in the Dark, which featured some of the band's most focused grooves and poppiest melodies to date. The mellower One Life Stand followed in 2010, along with a remix collection later that year. Hot Chip left DFA for Domino, which released the more uptempo, experimental In Our Heads in 2012. Album Review - from allmusic After 2010's relatively somber One Life Stand, Hot Chip's members resurfaced in side projects including the About Group, the 2 Bears, and New Build, all of which took different approaches to electro-pop but shared an almost tangible joy in music-making. It sure feels like some of that happiness rubbed off on In Our Heads, one of Hot Chip's most confident, joyous, and danceable albums yet; if the band's previous album was about how seriously they take the relationships in their lives, then this album explores how much fun they have in them. "Remember when we first heard the wall of sound?," Alexis Taylor asks on the soaring album opener, "Motion Sickness." This intermingling of love, music, and love of music -- all propelled by some of Hot Chip's most undeniable rhythms -- carries through the rest of In Our Heads, whether it's the breezily endearing '80s synth pop reinventions of "Don't Deny Your Heart," the life-affirming electro-funk of "How Do You Do?," or the soulful surrender of "These Chains" (like many of the album's numerous highlights, these two songs have Taylor and Joe Goddard share lead vocal duties). Hot Chip let their unabashed love of dance music get the upper hand on two of In Our Heads' most show-stopping tracks -- which, probably not coincidentally, were both lead singles for the album. "Night & Day" is one of the band's most playful and sneakily sexy dancefloor movers since "Ready for the Floor," all wriggling basslines and deadpan rap ("I like Zapp, not Zappa/So please quit your jibber-jabber," Taylor insists at one point). Meanwhile, the smooth house underpinnings on "Flutes" make its seven-minute journey from doubt to love all the more transporting. In Our Heads is also Hot Chip's most direct album yet, delivering their quirks and grooves with bigger, broader strokes that don't feel dumbed down; "Let Me Be Him" spells out the album's themes, but also decorates them with chirping birds and languid guitars that sound like an idyllic afternoon in a park. That Hot Chip manage to balance their kinetic and confessional sides so well here is no small feat, and In Our Heads is some of their finest and most accessible music, which is an extra treat for fans who liked One Life Stand's sentiments but wished that album moved feet as easily as it moved hearts. Track Listing 1. Motion Sickness 2. How Do You Do? 3. Don't Deny Your Heart 4. Look At Where We Are 5. These Chains 6. Night and Day 7. Flutes 8. Now There Is Nothing 9. Ends of the Earth 10. Let Me Be Him 11. Always Been Your Love