Made In The Dark [Deluxe Version] - Hot Chip Album Review

Hot Chip

Album Review

Excellent single. Bad album.

Human League, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, O.M.D, Yello, Kraftwerk, Jean Michel Jarre all had it - class. Hot Chip don't.

Believe it or not, there's a certain art to synth-orientated music, (okay so they have two guitarists but they're still a synth band) as Shake A Fist's intro mentions its "sounds of the studio" rather than music for much of this album.

Apart from catchy single Ready For The Floor that draws heavily on OMD's template, (its dropped from 7 to 15 after just three weeks w/c 17 Feb), and Hold On there's little evidence of Made In The Dark having much of a serious chart life with it sinking fast from 4 to 19 after only two weeks, which is a good indicator. The album starts with a warbled drone extending to well over a minute on Out At The Pictures that pans out to a crunching blast. By the time we've reached Bendable Poseable a dreadful synth cacophony things have reached a major low, though ballad We're Looking For A Lot Of Love has some semblance of song writing that seems to have overcome them, but its not exactly inspiring stuff as they're still heavily reliant on, well, machines. Another attempt at balladeering on the title track falls flat on its face, principally because the singing and lyrics suck. It wouldn't come as a surprise if Hold On turns out to be the next single which would go down well with clubbers - a club mix could be a monster even - though they sound like a poor mans Scissor Sisters trying to be groovy- and Don't Dance may get a single nod too - whereas Wrestlers is just plain awful as is the laboured and limp In The Privacy Of Our Love, the closer.

Next time, they'll have to seriously deliver the goods, because Made In The Dark, sounds as if it has been.

File under: Mighty forgettable

Elly Roberts