One Life Stand review

The Hot Chip members continue ignoring the frames

The British quintet Hot Chip loves to amuse the audience with its tracks, which do not hit to any certain genre, and DJ talents. Usually their music is described as the dance pop or synth pop or even intellectual alternative. However, all these descriptions fail to stress all the variety and depth of the Hot Chip’s creativity – these qualities assuredly conquered the place for the band in the hearts of their fans. After the successful, if not to say more, album Made In The Dark, the artists headed to the world tour. Temporarily finishing with the gigs, they came into the studio in February 2009 in order to create their fourth full-length. The new disc also ignores all the frames of musical genres, mixing the things unmixable for the first glance and combining the absolutely different things. The verses on the album One Life Stand stay intellectual, while the music is eclectic. The disc preserved the danceable charge of the previous work, but it was made with lighter and deeper moods. All the ten tracks possess the attractive arrangements, perfect beats and memorable tunes. As for the Hot Chip members themselves, the artists hurry to present the new disc to the world and are getting ready for a new support global tour.

One Life Stand: widening the notion of pop music

If you thought that pop music is usually plain and senseless in the matter of the texts, the new disc by Hot Chip is going to ruin your understanding of this genre. You will see here the complicated, but at the same time pleasant arrangements, clear, but filled with deep sense verses and beautiful melodies. The long-play opens with the club track, spiced up with disco elements, Thieves In The Night. It narrates us that all people are striving for happiness. The composition Hand Me Down Your Love is dedicated to personal relations – it is easy to see it from the title. The follow-up tune I Feel Better became may be one of the strongest spots on the disc. The song is decorated by the auto-tuned vocals and this approach reminds us of one more eclectics-lover, who is on the peak of the fame – Kanye West. The titling track One Life Stand possesses a sharp lyrics and an attractive synthesized arrangement, which will make it the must-have on the dance floors. One more firm track, in which we can here the voices of the three vocalists, Alley Cats, could be heard by the Hot Chip fans at their life performances. Now the artists decided to make this song available also for those, who can appreciate only their studio works. The disc finishes with the impressive, simultaneously romantic and sharp composition Take It In with the bright chorus.

Intelligent work

First of all, it should be stressed that with the One Life Stand the artists continued the praiseworthy tradition of Made In The Dark – they left many vocal parts. The length of the tracks stayed the same in the comparison to the previous attempts. The same goes for the high quality. As for the essence of the songs, it definitely changed for the better. The tunes became more straightforward, bright and memorable, while the unusual and thick arrangements, characteristic of Hot Chip, stayed the same. The special charm is added to One Life Stand due to the combination of romantic tunes and moods with the sometimes straight-in-the-face and acute texts, all being flavored with the strong disco influence. The entire mood of the album can be best described as soulful and thoughtful. All the compositions are united by the upbeat electro rhythm, ideally fitting for clubs and parties, which again proves us that the members of Hot Chip are interested in making intelligent, but first of all danceable music. The quintet counted all the strong qualities of their previous works and put them into One Life Stand – we can underline such advantages as eclectics, thoroughness and even internationality. Such firm and masterfully crafted disc as this definitely deserves to be presented in a world-wide support tour.