Now that the members of Hot Chip have had a chance to try out some side projects, it’s time for them to buckle down and finish my most anticipated album of 2012. With the release of every new album, Hot Chip seems to reinvent themselves, Electronic music, and the Euro-pop and club scenes. And while their last album, One Life Stand, was a bit of a more serious and sonically –spacious album, many fans and critics were eager to hear Hot Chip get back to their upbeat dance tracks filled with complex bleeps and bloops. With one of the band’s main producers taking time to concentrate on The 2 Bears, a 2-step house group, I was fairly certain that some of those elements would be brought to the studio for In Our Heads. After listening to the album once so far, I can say my expectations were met, and then blown to pieces.
In Our Heads marks the first time Hot Chip had full control over the production of the album. This album is all Hot Chip and wonderfully represents their eclectic combination of electronica, funk, disco, and pop music. This time around, the tracks have all of the craziness and energy of The Warning and Made in the Dark, but with the maturity and production value of One Life Stand. I’m not sure if this album took half the time or double the time to complete compared to their other albums, I can imagine it either way. On the one hand, the mix sounds like it would have taken years to get exactly right, but on the other hand, the guys are all more experienced both as a band, and independently. It’s possible they could have sat down and banged these tracks out in rapid-fire succession. This is all speculation on my part, obviously, and it really doesn’t matter how long it took. The album is incredible. It’s nearly perfect. It may be their best yet.
The Guardian seems to think this is Hot Chip’s best. On the page where they host the streaming app, they link to an interview with the band on how this album came together. There are plenty of links to great Hot Chip news to read while listening to the album in its entirety, ad-free, the way it should be. If you are as stricken by the album as I was, you’ll want to preorder it immediately, like I did. Sure, it may not come out until late November, but It’s going to be a great surprise in the mail in six months. Here’s the link to Hot Chip’s store where you can pre-order the album in CD, MP3, Vinyl, all 3, whatever you’re in to. From The Guardian’s streaming page:
Hot Chip‘s fifth album is a multi-coloured riot of electro, funk and pop – and possibly their best yet. Produced by the band themselves, it’s designed for the dancefloor yet never feels short of gigantic pop melodies. Explaining the joyous approach, Joe Goddard said: “I want to listen to records like Never Too Much by Luther Vandross. I don’t want to listen to a band caught up in their hang-ups and problems. That’s just not interesting to me.”