sun 08/12/2024

Album: Hot Chip - Freakout/Release | reviews, news & interviews

Album: Hot Chip - Freakout/Release

Album: Hot Chip - Freakout/Release

Electro-pop perennials latest is slick but contains delicious songwriting

Have to hand it to them

You know those people who claim to literally only like the very first music a band does at the start of their career, then kind “Meh” decades-worth of solid later stuff? Ridiculous, right?

That’s me and Hot Chip. 16 years ago I fell in love with “Over and Over” from the moment I heard it. Still love it. A brilliantly catchy, shrewdly observed Ecstasy anthem. A classic. While I’ve liked other Hot Chip songs since, that same absolute rush never happened again. Until now. There’s a few on Freakout/Release that bullseye the sweet spot.

This eighth album from the consistently successful pop-tronic explorers doesn’t all persuade, but much of it has an intelligently wrought sense of elation. And then there’s “Eleanor”, a sleek, retro-grooving, joyful number which squidges Hall & Oates-ness into a bubbling, danceable love song. It also makes extended reference to the apocryphal story that bleak existential playwright Samuel Beckett used to give the young André the Giant, the wrestler, lifts to school in rural France.

It's a real stunner, and the songs “Time” and (the faintly “Another Brick in the Wall”-like) “Miss the Bliss” are too, albeit less immediately so, both of them opaquely worded songs of longing, from the perspective of tough times. Yet enjoyment of at least half the album will depend how much slack the listener is willing to cut the ongoing trend for channelling yacht rock vibes via contemporary production. Not much in my case. “Eleanor” carries it off but on songs such as “Guilty”, the whiff of REO Speedwagon and their stinky ilk haunts.

But let’s focus on the good stuff. The title track is an Eighties-styles synth-pop banger, “Down” is pumpin’ electro-disco, Canadian MC Cadence Weapon grandstands impressively on “The Evil That Men Do”, and the lyrics throughout are chewy and intriguing. The album might be a grower. Sometimes, when things are this smoothly produced, it can take a while to get beyond the slickness. Whatever else, it’s a rich dish with musical uplift that holds its own.

Below: watch the video for "Down" by Hot Chip

 

One song makes extended reference to the story that playwright Samuel Beckett used to give the young André the Giant lifts to school

rating

Editor Rating: 
3
Average: 3 (1 vote)

Share this article

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters