Hot Chip // In Our Heads
Don't believe the hype, says Mark Cousens - Hot Chip still haven't lived up to their early promise
Hot Chip
In Our Heads
(Domino Records)
* *
Hot Chip first entered my consciousness back in 2004 with their fabulous single ‘Over and Over’. It was one of the first times I had let a dance band, albeit an indie dance band, into my record collection and there were very definitely strings attached. Sadly over the years they failed to keep up to their end of the bargain and none of their subsequent records were of sufficient quality to breach the threshold of my hallowed collection. In fact it’s been so long since I had even heard them on the radio that I thought they has done the honourable thing and disbanded. The unfortunate appearance of ‘In Our Heads’ on my doorstep proved me wrong however.
The immediate thing that hit me when I first hit play was how bland it all sounded - particularly the vocals which doesn’t have the punch required to be a lead... well, anything. This is most notably demonstrated in ‘Look At Where We Are’, an ostensibly beautiful song, and sadly the strongest on the album, that doesn’t quite hit its target because of the weak vocals.
The rest of the album comes and goes in an instantly forgettable blur: ‘In Our heads’ is probably where this album should have stayed.
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