Hot Chip, in the limelight again after dropping their latest quality effort, don't look like the kind of guys who should've expected fame (the above picture could be out of a Wes Anderson parody). Well, according to a recent piece in The Guardian UK, fame doesn't appear to be their cup of tea either. Music purists in 2010, who knew!
So who wants to bet fifty bucks their next album goes off the deep end a little bit. Because you're on!
Extended-play singles have become almost the norm for any well-respected indie bands' between-album downtime, tempering fans' and critics' nigh insatiable yearnings. Fall Be Kind might be the perfect expression of that art.
Bookending 2009 in a way that appears, retrospectively, quite ordained, Fall Be Kind cements the Collective's striking relevance and impressive consistency. There's just enough of Merriweather to feel appeased, and yet just enough unexpected moments to remain intrigued. Two around-the-corner surprises highlight the two best tracks: "Grass" drops from outer space into a Kubrick-esque carnival, while "What Would I Want? Sky" rises up from underwater into a Dali-esque masquerade.
The rest of Fall Be Kind basks in the ambience Animal Collective do best, testing your patience for their next much-awaited project.
Band: Hot Chip
Album: One Life Stand
Sounds Like: LCD Soundsystem, Junior Boys
Sub Sub Genre: Smart-Rock Electro-Pop
Essential Tracks: Take It In, I Feel Better
DJ Responsible: Hot Chip have been, I must admit, perhaps my favorite band since my first listen of The Warnng three and a half years ago. Neither Made in the Dark, a rollercoaster of brilliant highs and tossed-off lows, nor One Life Stand, its similarly inconsistent follow-up, are unloveable enough to steer me from this notion. In fact, the only portion that isn't amazing is the cloying and lethargic triple threat of "Brothers," "Slush," and "Alley Cats." The rest of the album is just a bunch of guys with expensive keyboards, youthful jubilance, and a host of great ideas. One Life Stand is like a sagging mattress: if you stick to the edges, you'll be alright.
DJ Sub Par: Can you dance to Hot Chip? You should. Their take on electro pop is to steal R&B tropes and craft them into tracks that veer between playful and honest. The worst thing would to interpret Hot Chip's style of bleeps and beeps as ironic. While it will be constantly difficult to surpass The Warning as an album, Hot Chip continues to deepen the complexity of both their melodies and emotional undercurrent. With this album, the title refers to making a one stand last a lifetime. Then, on the final track "Take It In," when Alexis Taylor sings "Take my heart and keep it close to you" he wants you to feel it. And also dance.
It's not the greatest verse ever, but, at least in a big picture kind of way, it's pretty cool that a rapper like Kid Cudi even listens to LCD Soundsystem let alone raps over them.
One might say that Wale doesn't have a style all his own: he wraps his cleverness into no-pause flows that are difficult to digest. Although an exaggeration, this minor critique becomes magnified on Attention Deficit, which lacks the creative production inherent to his mixtapes 100 Miles and Runnin' (the Justice-sampling "W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.") and The Mixtape About Nothing (getting his Jay-Z on with "The Freestyle (Roc Boys)").
Wale has few detractors, but it's hard to make a stink about a consistent and unspectacular album like Attention Deficit. We saw the reaction to the one album wonder Rhymefest, although Blue Collar at least felt a little risky. Wale's straightforward production (make a beat without tablas, please) is matched by casual verses that don't take enough chances.
The exceptions are twofold. The first are the songs with bite, namely the twinkly darkness of "90210" and the non-stop punchlines of opener "Trimuph." The second are the ones that nail the formula, primarily the back-to-back hits "Pretty Girls (ft. Gucci Mane)" and "World Tour." The latter half of the album could've used either/or.
Or a trim. Or some edge.
But hell, I'll take Wale over 90% of you rappers out there any day.
This song is an interesting peek into all that is (mostly) awful about the mainstream end of the contemporary pop cultural spectrum. As with Hollywood, the music industry distinctly lacks original ideas (here: a timely swoop of an iconic piece of 'good vibes' history drenched in the schmaltziest and most expensive of studio production). It's the same American Idol re-hash that the population just laps up. Some thoughts:
-the Janet Jackson-MJ green screen moment feels particularly forced.
-the guitar solos are wanky to a hilarious degree.
-Barbara Streisand is loathesome.
-The idea to do a group rap (led by LL Cool J) was moronic.
-The Black Eyed Peas are evil (see also: iTunes Top 100 #2 "Imma Be").
-I can surprisingly recognize just about all the solo players (shame on me?).
-Daughtry is a pile of garbage.
-Lil' Wayne and Kanye come out of this thing looking pretty cool, as always.
Feel no desire to watch the whole thing. It's quite painful.
And, remember, Haiti will still need help three years down the road when the rest of these celebrities are onto their next agent-induced benefit project. So give plentifully, but be in it for the long haul.
