One Life Stand

Hot Chip

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 9, 2010)
• Original Release Date: February 9, 2010
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Astralwerks
• ASIN: B002W6Z7C6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #393 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Thieves In the Night

2. Hand Me Down Your Love

3. I Feel Better

4. One Life Stand

5. Brothers

6. Slush

7. Alley Cats

8. We Have Love

9. Keep Quiet

10. Take It In

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

2010 album from one of the most exuberantly inventive and acclaimed bands around today. Hot Chip have built a devoted fanbase with their soulfully eclectic records and incendiary live shows. Hotly-anticipated by fans and media alike, One Life Stand is the band's most boldly accomplished record yet, at once offbeat and anthemic, cerebral and danceable. Features the single 'One Life Stand'.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hot Chip - One Life Stand, February 9, 2010

By	A. J. Vice "Zephyr" (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I started listening to Hot Chip shortly after The Warning came out, in 2006, and I fell in love with the band's knack for writing catchy, melodic, and danceable tunes. The album had a brilliant balance of hard and fast dance tracks and slower, smoother ballads and pop songs. When Made in the Dark came out in early 2008, I was disappointed with the direction the band had taken, eschewing their melodic inklings for a more dance-oriented album, filling in the gaps with some meager attempts at '70s R&B and soul. Alas, the dance tunes lacked the punch of brilliant songs like "Over and Over," and I sort of put Hot Chip on the proverbial shelf, somewhat forgetting about them, until of course I read about the impending release of One Life Stand.

Like clockwork, Hot Chip are set to release another album in their two year cycle, and One Life Stand can certainly serve as fitting company to the excellent The Warning. It seems that this time around, Hot Chip have again learned how to love melody, and have worked it in throughout the record, creating captivating hooks and little ear worms that you'll have stuck in your head for weeks, if not months. The chillout bridge and triumphant harmonized chorus of the title track soars well above and beyond Made in the Dark, and it's at this point that it becomes obvious that Hot Chip have done it again. The songs are more tightly composed and the styles more varied on this effort, and I for one am very pleased with the restraint shown by the band on this go. I am once again in the thrall of Hot Chip, and looking forward to their next album in February of 2012. Other album highlight include the brilliant closer, "Take It In" and the beautiful fraternal-love-touting "Brothers." Another great record for 2010. Damn, this is a good year.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still one Hot Chip!, February 9, 2010

By	Nse Ette (Lagos, Nigeria) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

"One Life Stand" is UK dance quintet Hot Chip's 4th album and it is filled with swirling synths, catchy melodies, and angelic falsettos. Opening cut "Thieves in the Night" is deliriously euphoric, while "Hand Me Down Your Love" sets sweeping strings to a Motown-style beat. Title track "One Life Stand" is dark & chiming at the same time, while "Alley Cats" and the floaty Pet Shop boys-style "Take It In" are more sombre.

The bouncy "We Have Love" was apparently inspired by Donna Summer's "I Feel Love", while the pulsing "Brothers" (a paean to looking out for each other) starts off ballad-like. Of the upbeat numbers, "I Feel Better" is the stand-out, trance-like and hypnotic with icy synth-strings and bouncy beat perfectly offsetting the warbled falsetto. My favourite.

The ballads are a revelation themselves; "Keep Quiet" and especially the Doo Wop-style piano ballad "Slush" with densely layered harmonies. Clever and beautiful!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hot Chip Baby, March 15, 2010

By	JFoster6 (Charlottesville, VA) - See all my reviews

The recently released fourth studio album by Hot Chip entitled One Life Stand, is a calm, innovative effort carefully crafted by the popular British electropop band. Including beat-driven, bass-line induced dance pieces as many of their previous work, Hot Chip took a different approach to their most recent album. The pieces in One Life Stand are not cluttered with sound, giving them a serene, calm, smooth feel, but still displaying aspects of musical influences such as Kraftwerk. They are warm, simple, but still very clearly crafted with a high level of care; despite its mild, placid feel, it does not descend to blandness by any stretch of the imagination.

Written mainly by Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard, the two vocalists of the alternative dance quintet, the album has a pulse that is very much alive, portentous in its ability to evolve throughout all of its ten songs. It begins and ends with true intense beat-driven dance pieces, evolves into a more alternative Indie rock sound, and then shifts again to melodic-based numbers. The final song, "Take It In", is a highpoint, providing the album with a stinging, powerful closer. The opening songs, "Thieves In The Night" and "Hand Me Down Your Love" kick off the album as the heaviest dance-floor pieces. Both begin slowly, and progress into dynamic, deep tunes with building bass lines. "I Feel Better", is a balanced mix between the deep techno dance sound and a more melodic, crafty sound we see later on. String melodies resonate, echoing throughout the song, giving it a unique flavor. Goddard, usually the back-up baritone, provides the lead vocals. A new instrument is also introduced: steel pans are incorporated, a lesser used, more innovative sound to modern technosonic music. They almost provide a laser type of sound, while it is in fact musique concrete, sound recorded acoustically from steel drums and cymbals.

The middle of the album comprised of "Brothers", "Slush", and "Alley Cats", fill it with a more alternative pop sound. "Alley Cats" is much of a rhythm-based rock mixed with Hot Chip's signature pop style, packed with standard guitar and keyboards. While "Brothers" and "Slush" are not on the fore-front and basically used to fill up space on the CD, they do provide mellow ballads that contrast well with the rest of the album. Power builds with the final few pieces; "We Have Love" brings back some intensity with its beat. Vocal recordings are used not just as a lyrical component, but are added to drive the beat further, a tactic we've seen in pieces such as "Flight Tonight" by The Avalanches. These last few songs are indeed intense, but not tense, as they are also defined by strong melodies ("Keep Quiet" reintroduces distinct string melodies that are heard earlier on).

And then there's "One Life Stand", the fourth song after which the album's named. As the album's first single, it is warm, carefully crafted, and involves the synth equipment that styles Hot Chip's music, including a clever play on words for its title. It may be too alternative rock sounding for most pretentious, purely technosonic music fans, but it is an irresistible tune nonetheless. A hook as addictive as the one this song contains makes it no surprise that the song has received rave reviews in the UK and some face time on American radio. Vocals are also used in this song almost as a form of synth-percussion. As Taylor sings in the chorus, "Keep on believin'", it sounds more like synthed notes on a keyboard before you realize they're actually spoken words. Steel drums make their way into this piece as well; the single obviously incorporates all of the subtle themes present throughout the album. It is no surprise this gem gave the album its name. All ten songs serve a purpose, and all ten will continue to take Hot Chip's One Life Stand to the top of the Electronic Music Charts.