Customer Reviews

One Life Stand

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

 

 

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.

"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!

Key tracks would definitely be "I Feel Better", "One Life Stand", "We Have Love", and "Keep Quiet. I love the emotional honesty and haunting vibe from the drone of the beats and instrumentation. The strings in "Keep Quiet" leave a reminiscent tone of the strings in the first Mario Game for Nintendo 64. "Take It In" leaves a dark feeling to come as the outro for the album, with a tone that makes me think of the angst one is filled with when listening to Nine Inch Nails albums, but with a much more soothing voice and less prominence on a distorted or hyped vocal. Smooth listening.

I've listened to "One Life Stand" while driving on the highway downtown with a friend. It was my first time hearing it, though I had already heard "I Feel Better" and honestly say the whole work is crafted well...every time I hear another one of their songs I just want to listen to more.

The song about alley cats is cool too.

This is my favorite working band right now. The rhythms are amazing. This album fits right in with the rest of their repertoire. It's a bit mellower than the last two. Not my absolute favorite (that would be The Warning), but "One Life Stand" and "Take It In" are worth the price of admission.

Hot Chip is unquestionably one of the most distinctive technosonic music groups to emerge in the last decade. They broke onto the scent in 2005 with their debut album, The Warning, which was an inconsistent album but featured some profound moments where the band's unique fusion of retro, pop, and dance music simply glistened. Over their next two albums, Hot Chip continued to expand their sound, becoming more complex and eccentric. As their songs became busier, Hot Chip's albums were still plagued by inconsistency with two or three tremendous singles, but the albums were unable to maintain the momentum throughout. With their fourth album, Hot Chip appear to have made a conscious effort to dial back their complexities and focus on making a more consistent album and with One Life Stand, they have succeeded in making the best overall album of their career.

One Life Stand kicks off with "Thieves In The Night," which features a simple, driving beat overlaid by some typical Hot Chip keyboard sounds, but as a whole, the song feels much more sparse and is less exuberant than much of Hot Chip's prior music, and this sets a tone for the entire album. Next is "Hand Me Down Your Love," which is a more upbeat, energetic song, but still feels more controlled than what I've come to expect from Hot Chip. On "I Feel Better," Hot Chip find a beautiful medium between the driving beats and synth notes their known for and their new, more controlled sound. Despite clocking in at only 4:40 seconds, the song has an epic feel about it stemming from the lush keyboard work and the vocalist giving a fabulous performance.

The album continues the momentum until track six "Slush." This is the one track on the album where Hot Chip dials back the energy too much. At 6:26, this slow, uneventful song drags on much too long and makes it seem that One Life Stand will suffer from the same inconsistency that has plagued prior Hot Chip albums. However, the album quickly hits a second high point on the infectiously catchy "We Have Love." This is one two songs on One Life Stand that sound very much like past Hot Chip records and is also so catchy that it is near impossible to listen to without physically bobbing your head to the beat. After the rather forgetful "Keep Quiet," the album closes on an extremely high note with one of the best songs Hot Chip's best songs. As is common in their best songs, the rhythm of "Take It In" is incredibly catchy and the vocalist's performance, especially in the chorus, takes the song to another level.

On One Life Stand, the obvious difference from Hot Chip's prior albums is that, musically, their sound is much more dialed down and precise. However, what also makes this their best, most complete album is the consistent strength of their lyrics. The songs on One Life Stand largely focus on the importance of commitment whether it is a romantic relationship or a friendship. The necessity of human connection is something that we all feel, so these songs about the importance of these relationships make for highly compelling listens.

Upon their arrival five years ago, Hot Chip was one of the most exciting bands on the electronic music scene, but after their first three albums, they were becoming relatively predictable. With One Life Stand, Hot Chip has consciously shifted their sound to become more mature and consistently high quality, so as we move into a new decade, Hot Chip is once again at the forefront of excitement in the electronic music world.

Their previous works were so good, so funny, so catchy, so cheeky, I think they probably found it hard to top that. This one is not as poppy, not as catchy, not as bright. There's definitely still some funny stuff in here, they're a bunch of very cheeky lads, excellent sense of humor, but this one sort of fades into the background for me, it just doesn't stand out like their other discs. I'll just say that it's not bad.

The British electro-pop band Hot Chip have shown that they have done some growing up on their most recent album, One Life Stand. Hot Chip is a welcome breath of fresh air in the electro-pop genre, deviating from many of the monotonous and repetitive beats of other groups. The album finds the group exploring new grounds in the electronic music genre in highly original ways.

Like their predecessor Karlheinz Stockhausen, who began his work almost 60 years earlier, Hot Chip combine digital sounds and music with acoustic instruments and manipulated samples. There is frequent use of synthesizers, synth pads, and drum beats which create much of the harmony and melody. Yet, almost every track includes an unaltered drum set and in addition several tracks include electric guitar and piano. The most notable manipulation of acoustic samples though comes from voice samples that often provide the refrain or accompany the chorus in many of their songs. Despite their experimentation and originality, most songs will still be heard at chic clubs and house parties due to the fact that most of the songs are driven by a steady bass drum beat (whether from a drum machine, a real drum set, or both) that allows the songs to keep their "danceability". Songs tend to build by slowly adding new sounds and beats that layer the music. The bands style is very reminiscent of the 70s and 80s electronic band Kraftwerk (which is interesting considering Hot Chip has covered and remixed two of their songs). Like their mentors, Hot Chip's beats are somewhat simple and contain strange electronic sounds, only attainable through computers, while being highly innovative.

The sixth track on the album, "Slush", provides a nice respite from the digital origins of the group and showcases their skills in a more traditional sense. This track only includes acoustic instruments that are not manipulated (with the exception of some vocal looping). This is the only track of it's kind on the record and one can assume that the placement of it in the middle of the album was an intentional choice, as it nicely divides the album in half. On tracks like this and others, lead singer Alexis Taylor's falsetto voice balances nicely when joined with his lower octave counterpart, Joe Goddard. The voices blend together seamlessly and complement each other well.

While the band's musical style remains largely unchanged, it is in the subject matter of the lyrics that reflect the most marked change from their earlier work. The themes found on One Life Stand seem to be more subdued and less experimental and reflect sentiments of fidelity, love, and happiness. This marks the groups' progression and suggests that they have entered into their "growing up" phase (lead singer Alexis Taylor is now a father). The lyrics are more insightful, for example on the track "We Have Love" Taylor reflects "we have love/ there is nothing else to be proud of". Or, on the album's title track, Taylor proposes on settling down for the rest of his life with one person.

Yet, Hot Chip has not lost all of their childishness and many lyrics still contain elements of triviality despite the overall more serious subject matter. This is most notable on the song "Alley Cats", which literally traces a story about two cats. On this Taylor sings "Monkey grooms, blossom blooms/ do you dig germs, the Germs". Or on another upbeat song, "Thieves in the Night", Taylor playfully jokes "My friend once told me something so right/ he said to be careful of bugs that don't bite".

The subject matter of the sentimental song "Brothers" bridges the gap between Hot Chip's former silliness and their newfound sincerity. This slower, heartfelt song reminisces about brotherly love and connection, but contains lyrics such as "I can play Xbox with my brothers/ it's not about who won or lost with my brothers/ we play to be free".

One Life Stand is still catchy and contains enough hooks and beats to be considered dance music, yet stays rigidly clear of the house music genre. The album is an excellent addition to the already experienced band's musical repertoire and to British-electronic music in general.

Like most here I first got into Hot Chip after listening to "The Boy From School" on Pitchfork and instantly became obsessed with it. I then went and got The Warning and was blown away. There is a good reason why to this day I would still recommend that album above all others to get someone into Hot Chip. It is still probably overall their strongest front-to-back album, but this one almost takes the cake. I would put it right between "The Warning" and "Made in the Dark". I didn't think they'd be able to top those last 2 albums, but again these guys continue to amaze. I don't know how the hell Alexis Taylor & Joe Goddard do it. Every damn song these guys write is amazing. The melodies are original and catchy, the production is fantastic. Even the weakest song on the whole album "Slush", at least has some interesting things going on and the boys were trying something different. I can respect that. Even Hot Chip at their worst is still not that bad. I just don't know if these guys are even capable of writing a bad song. If you enjoyed the more slower moments from the last albums, you will really love OLS. There is realy only one "Over and Over"-type banger on here, but this is still groovy electropop regardless, but the melodies are stronger than ever (seems like they get better and better) and the LYRICS especially are the biggest improvement. Trust me give it a few listens. I am just so happy these guys are around making music and please please please if you like this band go see them live! They put on a brilliant concert.

After a couple of initial tentative albums, Hot Chip broke out with its delicious 2006 album "The Warning", which contained several irresistible songs like "Over and Over", "Colours" and "I Was A Boy From School". 2008's "Made In the Dark" album was even sharper, even if it didn't contain as many immediately accessible tracks. Now comes the band's highly anticipated new album.

"One Life Stand" (10 tracks; 51 min.) starts off with a blast, "Thieves In the Night" and "Hand Me Down Your Love", the latter being an obvious choice for a radio single. The band takes a short breather with "I Feel Better", only to then continue the dance party with the title track and a nicely bouncing "Brothers". What a fabulous and pretty much perfect first half of the album, which I rate 4.5 stars. Things sound very differently on the second half of the album, though, with pensive tracks "Slush" and "Alley Cats". In fact there is only one up-tempo track on the second half of the album, namely "We Have Love", which actually might be my favorite track of the album. The album finishes with again 2 more pensive tracks, "Keep Quiet" and "Take It In". For me the second half of the album doesn't resonate as well as the first one, and I rate it 3.5 stars. In all, I wouldn't rate this album nearly as good as "The Warning", but still there are plenty of good tracks to keep me interested.

I've had the good fortune of seeing the band in concert a number of times, including on their "Warning" and "Made in the Dark" tours, and it was fantastic each time. I will be seeing them again at Coachella in a few months, and I fully expect they will play mostly their faster, dance-along songs from this album, along with the old nuggets from previous albums. Can't wait for that. Finally, if you wonder where you can hear these guys, check out WOXY (BAM! The Future of Rock and Roll), the internet-only station that brings the best indie-music in the country, bar none.

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.