Hot Chip
Why Make Sense?
[Domino]
You know that thing where the singer mentions an instrument in a song (say, ‘the guitar’) and then that instrument appears? On the second track here, Love Is The Future, Alexis Taylor not only does that but also calls to ‘roll off the high-end’ at which point a low-pass filter pull down across everything except Taylor’s vocal. Later on – in the same track – there’s an impromptu double bass solo and a rap verse from Posdnuos from De La Soul, before a Green Gartside string arrangement adorns the outro.
Elsewhere, Huarache Lights, another hook-laden mid-tempo jam, is sung from the point of view of the stage: ‘I know every single we play tonight/Will make the people bathe in the light’ before breaking down into a Kraftwerkian refrain ‘Replace us with the things that do the job better’. This switches from Taylor’s unprocessed vocals into a heavily-treated vocoderised version, teasing the human/machine and performative/automated dichotomy the band teeters between. As veterans, and successful ones at at that, Hot Chip make this all seem remarkably easy, and remarkably self-aware, with the key element, Taylor’s voice, balancing finely between detached and soulful.
The standards by which a veteran band’s albums are judged are generally miles different from a novice act, or a local act, such is the importance of novelty. To borrow classic rock terminology, where LCD Soundsystem went for a spectacular burn out, Hot Chip are going for a long fade away. Which is to say, Why Make Sense? fits so seamlessly into the Hot Chip canon that it seems likely that it won’t accrue the plaudits that this effortlessly excellent record deserves.
Words: Ian Lamont
Like this? Try these:
Junior Boys – It’s All True
Róisín Murphy – Hairless Toys
Matthew Dear – Asa Breed
