Made In the Dark

Hot Chip | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 5, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Astralwerks
• ASIN: B00116QB78
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,381 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #71 in Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Fi > Electronic Pop
  • #78 in Music > Indie Music > Dance & DJ > Electronica

Track Listings

1. Out At The Pictures

2. Shake A Fist

3. Ready For The Floor

4. Bendable Poseable

5. We're Looking For A Lot Of Love

6. Touch Too Much

7. Made In The Dark

8. One Pure Thought

9. Hold On

10. Wrestlers

11. Don't Dance

12. Whistle For Will

13. In The Privacy Of Our Love

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Hot Chip have always been the sort of band happy to flaunt their intelligence, but the smartest trick they pull on Made in the Dark is to show a little wisdom, too. 2006’s The Warning was a fine record, albeit one sometimes difficult to take seriously thanks to its taste for pop pastiche--here’s the Prince track, there’s a 2-step garage track--or the occasional ironic wisecrack. On their third album, though, it’s satisfying to report Hot Chip sound like no one but themselves. That is, shuffling, synthesizer-smeared electro-pop with a gooey emotional core and, in the shape of Alexis Taylor, one of the greatest white-boy soul voices since that of his hero, Green Gartside of Scritti Politti. "Ready for the Floor" sounds halfway between Detroit techno and the soundtrack to a Nintendo RPG, Taylor’s clear, honest vocal reaching out hopefully: "I’m hoping by chance/You might take this dance," while the album’s title track is a slow piano ballad that finds him laid blue over the ruins of a love affair. There is mischief, too, of course: take "Wrestlers," a dinky R&B track where the group show off their knowledge of wrestling slang. Even when they’re ready to rumble, though, Hot Chip show off the sort of emotion and elation we’ve rarely seen since the glory days of New Order, and that’s high praise indeed. –-Louis Pattison

Product Description

Made In The Dark is Hot Chip's third full-length release and the follow up to their critically acclaimed album The Warning. This new installment shows Hot Chip at its best-
wonderfully quirky, clever, soulful and poppy. The sound of the band has evolved towards a wilder, heavier electronics, though still coupled with a signature pop aesthetic.
This tougher sound is no more evident than on the single Shake A Fist which created a massive stir when it crept out at the end of 2007 on a limited etched 12". Ready
For The Floor and One Pure Thought add pure, unadulterated head rush pop into the mix. Made In The Dark also shows that the band is equally at home creating songs
of intimacy and melancholy as they were dancefloor fillers.
The band come together with Owen Clarke's signature guitar and keyboard riffs, Al Doyle's high caliber musicianship and Felix Martin's programming skills combined
with the considerable talents of Joe Goddard and Alexis Taylor in a way making the songs even more propulsive, repetitive, rhythmical, methodical, wonky, intimate and
beautiful than before.
Throughout Made In The Dark there are echoes of earlier songs and styles, steps forwards, backwards and sideways. The band recorded several tracks on the album live
in one take such as Hold On and Out At The Pictures which is rare for any band these days, but even more so for an electronic-pop band.
Hot Chip straddle the line of electronic and pop so well as we feel there is appeal for the band in many musical tastes. The hipsters who found and love Hot Chip will still
be lured in by their originality and inventiveness, whereas the undeniable infectiousness and catchiness of their music should bring them a wider audience.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars It's fun, cool and full of tunes and charm. February 11, 2008

By G.Villan

Format:Audio CD

"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. Read more ›

3.0 out of 5 stars good January 7, 2013

By Joshua J. Hanson

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

ya a funk, jam, with a jazzy fresy fresh putting a nice piece of poop on you; while you're making love to a super-model!!?

5.0 out of 5 stars Love this cd January 2, 2013

By K. Baybutt

Format:MP3 Music|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this cd years ago and its still one of my favorite cds, hot chip at their finest, worth the money if you like hot chip

4.0 out of 5 stars Hot Chip! January 8, 2010

By Stephanie Rae Lozo Davies

Format:Audio CD

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars Not all of Hot Chip's songs are for everyone, but they are all for me! June 24, 2009

By Thaddeus Burns

Format:Audio CD

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.

4.0 out of 5 stars Flawed, as they say... November 12, 2008

By M. Nielson

Format:Audio CD

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....

4.0 out of 5 stars Hot Chip have not reached their peak yet September 8, 2008

By Jason Harrington

Format:Audio CD

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.