The Warning - Hot Chip

Someone pointed out to me that I hadn't reviewed The Warning by Hot Chip. Well that's because I didn't have it properly. Well now I do, so I can "properly" review it.

First things first, nothing on here is as immediate as Over & Over. In fact listening to the album you can see why a) that was the first single and b) why they are re-releasing it as their next single. That's not to say that the album is poor, just that Over & Over is probably it's one "commercial" moment.

That's also not to say mind you that this is the kind of self-induilgent pap that "electronica" can often slip in to; its just that if there is a suprising turn to take within a song, the chances are Hot Chip will take it. For instance, Colours starts off relatively sparsely only to transform into a sunny dance number whilst Careful start off all warm and ambient and then abruptly interrupts itself by what I am reliably informed could almost be "garage" beats.

Occasionally this wilful experimentation doesn't work, but thankfully those moments are few and far between. It's easy to see where the inspiration comes from but the songs never sound like rip-off's. Indeed if there is one thing to take away from this album it may well be just how, well, fresh and original everything sounds. A little trimming wouldn't have gone amiss and occasionally tracks to disintergrate slightly, but those are small complaints when what works is so good. Hot Chip may well be threatening to break our legs, but it's likely if that happens it will be through over-dancing rather than anything more sinister.