Quick 'N Dirty Review: Hot Chip | One Life Stand

Before we start, here's a quick look at the rating system that we use here at The Dirtywhirl:

100 - Classic Album; One Of The Best Of All Time
99-90 - Exceptional Work; Rush Out And Get This
89-80 - Very, Very Good; You Should Still Go Out And Get This
79-70 - Not Bad At All; Might Actually Be Worth Your Time
69-60 - Has Its Moments But On The Whole... Meh
59-50 - Won't Make Your Ears Bleed; Won't Make You Dance, Either
49-0 - Don't Waste Your Time; You're Smarter Than This (Probably) 

Now... onto the review:

Hot Chip | One Life Stand

Many people experience in extremes. Either something is the greatest thing they've ever seen/heard/ate/whatever, or it's so horrible that it must be mocked and belittled to no end. There's no in between -- everything is about absolutes. Hot Chip is a band that deals in absolutes. They are capable of completely dazzling songs ("Ready For A Fall,'"Boy From School,""Made In The Dark"), but they're also more than capable of tossing acrid stink bombs which is what makes them extraordinarily frustrating as an act. Why is Hot Chip unable to extrapolate their success with singles out through an entire full-length record? Their last two albums, The Warning and Made In The Dark had moments of brilliance coupled with tracks that were less so. Unfortunately, the stinkers are as smelly as ever on their fourth record, One Life Stand. One Life Stand actually gets off to a fairly solid start as the pulsating synthpop beat of "Thieves In The Night" opens the record and rolls along behind vocalist Alexis Taylor singing, "Happiness is what we all want/ May it be that we always don't want." After the average at best "Hand Me Down Your Love" follows, "I Feel Better" evokes thoughts of New Order through its beat and use of sequencers and serves as the setup for the album's best song, title track "One Life Stand." "One Life Stand" succeeds by employing a multitude of disparate sounds as Hot Chip pulls out every trick in their playbook behind Taylor querying, "I only want to be your one life stand/ Tell me do you stand by your whole man?" And then, right about here? The stink starts wafting in. Seriously, One Life Stand falls completely off the GD rails at this point. Why the band made the decision to follow up the album's best track with a sequence of bland to outright horrible songs is unfathomable. To get the idea of the sound of "Slush" (apt title, by the by), try to imagine LCD Soundsystem's "New York You're Bringing Me Down" if it wasn't brilliant and was, in fact, terrible. "Slush" is completely maudlin and seemingly never-ending and is inexplicably bookended by the dull and completely forgettable "Brothers" and "Alley Cats," not to mention the insanely forced house beat of "We Have Love." More smelly crap follows before the oasis that is "Take It In" at least finishes the record on a high, though it's honestly hard to tell whether that track's legitimately good or if it sounds better than it is since it's buttressed by such garbage. It's funny that One Life Stand seems to act as a microcosm of Hot Chip's career -- moments of brilliance in concert with pure ineptitude. Well... I guess not so much funny as sad, really. Pity.


RIYL: New Order; Pet Shop Boys; Dancey stuff; Beats; Half of a good record
Standout Tracks: "One Life Stand;" "Take It In;" "Thieves In The Night"


Dirty Rating: 47/100

One Life Stand - Hot Chip

"One Life Stand" On YouTube