One Life Stand

Hot Chip’s fourth album One Life Stand has been eagerly anticipated after the critical acclaim of their previous album Made in the Dark. From the very moment that you listen to the first single to be released from the record – the title track ‘One Life Stand’ – you can instantly notice the potential in this song to become a big hit. The heavy bass riff which builds up at the start of the song is eventually joined by that signature synthetic-electro sound which Hot Chip have perfected, marking it out as the albums catchiest song. Vocalist Alexis Taylor’s gentle voice and lyrics, based on the emotions rollercoaster of a relationship (“Moments keep us guessing and lead us from temptation, but better to embrace them”), add a more poetic and thoughtful feel to the song, which is uncommon in most electro music.

However, despite the brilliant structure of this song the rest of the album proves to be a disappointment. Hot Chip have attempted to make an album that fuses common dance/electro sounds (like the synthetic strings in ‘I Feel Better’) along with lyrics exploring love and relationships, however the album falls short of being anything spectacular. There are moments where the album does give us dance fuelled floor-fillers like ‘We Have Love’ and ‘Take It In’, however the rest of the album just doesn’t spark the excitement it should do, especially with dull, dreary songs like “Brothers”. While the band should be praised for having taken a different approach to making electro music, Taylor’s gentle singing just doesn’t fit in with the album’s melodies, which themselves, while catchy, do not break any boundaries of electro music and end up sounding too familiar. One Life Stand is a good album but sadly not Hot Chip’s finest effort.