Customer Reviews

Made In The Dark [+Digital Booklet]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Made in the Dark" is the third studio album from British electropop band Hot Chip.
The first release from the album, "Shake a Fist", created a stir among fans when it crept out on a limited 12" in September 2007 and the new single, "Ready for the Floor", was reportedly requested by Kylie Minogue's management before the idea was dropped.
Although usually placed within the indie category, Hot Chip are notoriously difficult to pin down.
They draw influences from a wide range of sources, from German minimal techno to Prince, Ray Charles, Fleetwood Mac and New Order. With their third album the band have returned to their peculiar brand of mechanically emotive pop and despite having fashioned remixes for the likes of the Rolling Stones, Scissor Sisters, the Go! Team and Gorillaz after their successful second album, Hot Chip remain refreshingly willing to depart from the styles of the pillars of rock and create their own distinctive sound.
Hot Chip's third album succeeds where their 80s electronica predecessors failed - it's avant-garde in places and there are some moments that sound like the devil's ring tone, but, like a striker who instinctively knows where the net is, the band never stray far from a killer melody or wondrous blast of retro-digital heaven.
The main evolution from their earlier work is that "Made in the Dark" contains more ballads than the previous albums.
Tracks like "Whistle for Will", "In the Privacy of Our Love" and "Made in the Dark" demonstrate that Hot Chip are capable of producing melancholy, tuneful and intimate songs which showcase how the voices of Joe Goddard and Alexis Taylor work brilliantly together as well as thumping dance-floor fillers.
The opening trio of "Out at the Pictures", "Shake a Fist" and "Ready for the Floor" are all wonky pop wonders that ease you into the experimentation that follows and, as ever, the voices of Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard work brilliantly together.
"Made in the Dark" has everything you'd want from a modern pop album - it's fun, cool, occasionally terrifying and full of tunes and charm.

The title track has production that wouldn't be out of place on I Am Robot and Towers of Asia's debut record, or Postal Service outtakes. But like these artists, Hot Chip focuses more on song arrangements and structure rather than technology and programming showmanship.

It sums up the core of what made The Warning so accessible and enjoyable right from the onset: it's like listening to early New Order records for the first time, waiting for the next one with a little bit of excited anticipation to see what's going to happen next with every new song.

I guess I'm not surprised that Hot Chip's weirder songs bother some people, but man, I can't relate. I love it all. These guys are geniuses.

I like this 3rd outing better overall than "The Warning" but not by much. All their work has been incrdible.

Hot Chip is just plain fun to listen to, folks.

Best tracks on this one are Made In The Dark, Ready For The Floor, and One Pure Thought.

Their first album was no indication of how far they'd come. It hasn't been that long, yet they've rode a wave of hype and DFA backing to become truly great. They have their own sound.. no matter how fast or slow the tune is. With every track on "Made In The Dark," you can an irrefutable feeling they knew exactly how they wanted each song to come out.

So my 4 stars reflects the percentage of the songs that connected with me, and that I actually enjoyed. Favorites are the obvious 'Ready For The Floor,' and 'One Pure Thought.' Another hit was 'Wrestlers,' my favorite song on the album. What had been described as 'bad goon-hop' by lesser minded critics, I profusely enjoy the way it plays out, the vocal bridge.. everything. It's just the perfect song. Much like 'The Warning' from the same titled last disc has snuck up on me after a time, after the initial singles wore off.

Give this a sample listen before hand.. maybe buy a few songs as individual tracks. If you like it, get the disc as I have, help support them and their free-spirited experimentalism. If not.. just find something else.. not everyone will feel comfortable with the sounds on this disc. Different strokes....

I would never hesitate to say that this is a very awesome group, overall, dispite their missteps. However, their albums have a wierd effect like it's impossible to be in the mood for every part of their personality in one sitting. It's like I want to dismantle their three albums to make one that is sudo-sentimental, one that is fun-loving with solid beats, then a third that is awkward and bizzarre. That way I could keep the third one on the shelf and not have it get in the way of why I love this group. As it stands, they play out like an awkward mix of Air and Ween, and their new album, while clearly showing acheivement, is no exception. I am not an MP3 person, per say, but if you just buy the songs that immediately sound awesome from their 3 albums and then shuffle the songs...that is as good as this group gets. Everything else is more of a anti-social personal exploration type of music...quirky stuff to study in headphones.

Their best song is still their first single "Playboy" although each album does have it's treasures.

PS: the DVD is just OK...nothing to justify a price increase really, but more of a thing to let you into the band's vibe and the way these songs were designed to function on stage more like the group "Battles" or "!!!" (AKA: Chick Chick Chick, or Chk Chk Chk), meaning the songs are a bit of an open groove when they are performed. The overall packaging, while classy and minimal, is kind of non-descript and plain as well. Perhaps this whole thing is better as a download...perhaps.

Made in the Dark (2008, EMI) Hot Chip's third studio album. ****

The electro-pop quintet have crafted a master album on their third outing entitled Made in the Dark. The wide range of influences makes it very diverse, and while not all of them are magic, many are. Most notable is the lead single "Ready For the Floor," a disco-inspired dance piece. Alex Taylor's soft falsetto paired with signature 70's-style synths make it sound like something Blondie would have tried. Another key moment is the track right beforehand, the club-beating "Shake a Fist." For a while, the track is fairly minimal, with a solid drumbeat backed by occasional keyboards. It is again Taylor's vocals that give the song life, especially during the chorus of "Out and out and out/Out and out and out/Shake a fist/And let's breathe it in without," in which the beat is impeccable. The only dry moment is on the album's title track, a strange piano ballad. Although the mood that Hot Chip attempted comes through, it can't fit in an album laden with bouncing and crunching electronica. Overall, Made in the Dark is something to be cherished, a sincere moment in electro-pop. (Out at the Pictures, Shake a Fist, Ready For the Floor)

I'm a big fan of 80s alternative rock. When I heard Shake a Fist on World Cafe, I thought it sounded like New Order on steroids. I was instantly a fan. There are some slow, melodic songs also, and some that get a little monotonous. But overall, it's pure ear candy.

probably not a cd that everyone will appreciate, but one that i really dig. this cd will get ya movin and has punchy lyrics and infectious songs. i swear that my dog loves "ready for the floor". good stuff.

Personally, I've never been happy with most electropop and dance music -- they take a beat, repeat it for five-to-ten minutes, and add in some lame lyrics about dancing. No thank you.

But after two albums of doing the exact opposite, Hot Chip.... are STILL not doing it in their third full-length album, "Made in the Dark." Instead, they sound even quirkier and wilder, and their songs are crammed with deliciously tight electropop, some wild flourishes and beats, and occasionally... a soft little reflective pop ballad.

"It's on every street/It's funky, cheap... Are you at the pictures?/Or out at sea?/It's better this way/Trust, do you believe me?," Alexis Taylor sings over a funky, angular melody. But the mind-bending really sets in with "Shake A Fist," a dark rhythmic pop song that mutates halfway through into a colourful, insane tangle of jabbing synth.

Apparently Hot Chip are aware that their audiences' brains might explode with more songs like that. So after the warm, catchy electropop of "Ready for the Floor," they try some easier fare -- clattery rock'n'roll, razor-edged electronica, rambling electropop tied in twisting rock riffs, and a shimmying electropopper that evolves into a shimmering... video game theme. Yeah, that's what it sounds like.

And there are a couple softer songs woven in there -- a gently catchy ballad wound in twitters and streams of synth, little soft ballads, and the closing song "Whistle For Will," which is all echoing synth and solemn piano.

There was obviously a lot of time and care taken with "Made in the Dark," because this album has few -- if any -- weak spots. In fact, the only one I can really take issue with is "Bendable Poseable," for its schizophrenically catchy sound -- and even then, I strongly suspect that Hot Chip intended for it to sound that way.

Their music is all tight, dancey, sharp-edged melodies from blazing electric guitars, shimmering twisting synthesizers, and some sharp drums to set the beat. Just about any one of them will get you bouncing in your chair. And Taylor plays some really beautiful, poignant piano melodies in the ballads, strung with softer, less dancey synth.

But rather than letting the catchiness carry the songs, they throw in some odd twists -- chants of "weather," horns, wind chimes, twists of jabbing synth, and a monologue (""Before we go any further I'd like to show you all a game I made up...."). You can never predict how these songs are going to go.

And Taylor sounds like he's having a GREAT time -- he can turn his quirky voice into the core of a dance song, or he can sing a low, soulful ballad. And he sings songs that are usually solid -- with a few odd moments ("I'm only going to heaven if it tastes like caramel") -- with the occasional lyrical brilliance ("I've never seen your love again/I'll never be your love for sure/Except for that day.... except for that day...").

Hot Chip astounds with the blindingly catchy, brilliantly complex "Made in the Dark" -- they keep polishing their music, and it just keeps getting better and better.

Hot Chip released an excellent 3rd studio album "The Warning" in 2006, which collected critical acclaim everywhere, and which also brought the band some commercial success, mainly due to the irresistible "Over and Over" single. The band toured tirelessly behind "The Warning", and the expectations for the follow-up album have been huge. Now finally comes the new album.

"Made In the Dark" (13 tracks, 54 min.) starts off with a long instrumental opening before crashing in with a nervous "Out At the Pictures", which is immediately followed by a strong "Shake a Fist" and the first single "Ready For the Floor", another one of those irresistible sing-along, dance-along songs. The middle of the album brings a couple of slower, more pensive songs, including "Touch Too Much" and a brooding title track. The second half of the album starts off with a guitar-riff heavy "One Pure Thought" which evolves into a high energy song, just great. It is followed by the best track on the album "Hold On", a long upbeat song that you wish would go on forever and which is sure to make everyone get moving on the dance floor. After all those great dance tunes, the album concludes with a couple of quiet songs to wind things down. In all, this album expands on the band's formula of "The Warning", but with a greater musical pallet, and does the trick beautifully.

As great as the band's studio albums are, you haven't really experienced Hot Chip unless you've seen them in concert. I saw Hot Chip at last year's Coachella festival, and it was one of the more memorable moments of the festival for me. Meanwhile, "Made in the Dark" is a fantastic album, and highly recommended. If you wonder where you might catch these guys on the radio, check out indie-rock station WOXY, the internet-only station ("The Future of Rock and Roll!"), which plays them regularly.