During my travels, I’ve been really enjoying listening to some new music - three albums have been heavily rotated on my Zune: The Stage Names by Okkervil River, Falling off the Lavender Bridge by Lightspeed Champion and the marvelous Made in the Dark by Hot Chip. I’ll cover off the other two in later posts, but for now I want to talk about Hot Chip.

I was really impressed  with the last Hot Chip album, The Warning. Over and Over was a real breakthrough single and they managed to gain attention and airplay with that really infectious track.

The new album is a logical extension of the clashes of style on that album - there could almost be three sections to this album - the pure electronica/pop soundclash, the rockier more progressive section and the ballads.Its a really nice varied set.

The opener is the barnstorming Out at the Pictures and track 2 opens with Todd Rundgren (I think) talking you through the strange noises in his studio before ‘Shake a Fist’ kicks in with savage portamento bass lines and all sorts of analogue trickery.

The single ‘Ready for the Floor’ is awesome, there were rumours that this was written for (or offered to) Kylie Minogue - and as much as I like her sound, I prefer the Hot Chip take on this…the melody is great and the lyrics are excellent.

Some of the ballads on the album fall a little flat, mainly due to the lack of strong voice, but they remind me of Kings of Convenience or Erlend Oye, and its rare to hear electronica sound so tender and gentle so it can be forgiven.

Whole album is excellent - give it a listen and see if you agree.