Hot Chip - One Life Stand

As far as we’re concerned, Hot Chip have never been a band to go for if you’re looking for immediacy. That aspect of their material starts and ends with their singles (at the very most, as even then they don’t provide ‘quick fixes’ as most singles do). Rather, they have always been the band you’ve had to give a chance to grow on you, and if the ever-so-slightly underwhelming third record, 2008’s ‘Made In The Dark’ didn’t confirm this, ‘One Life Stand’ definitely does.

Ironically, it seems that this slow-burner of an album contains the best hooks they have written to date. So, here we have an album that either consists entirely of singles, or has but one clear candidate (the glorious, strings-laden ‘I Feel Better’). It’s all rather confusing, but one thing’s for sure: on ‘One Life Stand’, the focus has shifted to ballads. A sizeable amount of ‘Made In The Dark’ was made up of them too, it could be said, but the key word here is ‘focus’; things seem so much more well-executed in that department this time around.

‘Thieves In The Night’ opens the album and sends out a clear signal that a natural progression has been made from ‘Made In The Dark’. There is quite a lot less ‘quirk’ here (something the group have become known for), and in its place better musicianship. ‘My friend one told me something so right; he said to be careful of thieves in the night’: the album’s opening lines, courtesy of frontman Alexis Taylor. The track builds over six minutes to a rather satisfying conclusion, setting up ‘Hand Me Down Your Love’ perfectly. If push comes to shove, we can see this getting the nod for the single treatment as well. The track is notable as it is the first on here to use piano - an instrument that’s rather prominent on the record - and the driving percussion helps to lend a certain power to the song.

The album’s title track, meanwhile, hearkens back to their second album and finest moment, 2006’s ‘The Warning’, with its oddly ominous-sounding verses giving way to a soulful chorus: ‘I only want to be your one life stand / Tell me, do you stand by your man?’ As the album’s title suggests, lyrical focus here is on relationships - though not just the romantic kind. ‘Brothers’ (another track to feature piano) is an ode to the connection between two siblings. However, it’s not all serious in the lyrics department; some would say that the record would then probably collapse under the weight of its own mawkishness), as ‘Alley Cats’ suggests: ‘Two people are alley cats / We have an unhappy cat / He is restless, needs attention / Loses patience, seeks affection.’ This rather unusual take on relationships is one of the most laid-back-sounding songs here, and proves to be one of the album’s highlights. In fact, we would be rather inclined to say that the record is a little bottom-heavy, if anything. It’s not all that unbalanced, thankfully, and you’ll be glad to hear that it seems like rather strict quality control has been employed here. One track that dragged the record down would disrupt its flow, but there’s nothing of the sort here.

As the album draws to a close with ‘Take It In’, released as a download in November, you get the sense that ‘One Life Stand’ is very much the natural next step from ‘Made In The Dark’. While it will surely make some fans long for a return to the sound explored on ‘The Warning’ and ‘Coming on Strong’, it will also make them release that the band they loved are as just as happy in new territory. They are indeed - and it shows.