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May 12 2008
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Elly Roberts reviews
Hot Chip: Made In The Dark
Distributed by
EMI
- February 2008
- Format: Limited deluxe edition with bonus live DVD
- Rating: 2/10
Excellent single. Bad album.
Human League, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, O.M.D, Yello, Kraftwerk, Jean Michel
Jarre all had it – class. Hot Chip don’t.
Believe it or not, there’s a certain art to synth-orientated music (okay so
they have two guitarists but they’re still a synth band) as Shake A Fist’s
intro mentions its "sounds of the studio" rather than music for much
of this album.
Apart from catchy single Ready For The Floor that draws heavily on
OMD’s template, (its dropped from 7 to 15 after just three weeks w/c 17 Feb),
and Hold On there’s little evidence of Made In The Dark having much
of a serious chart life with it sinking fast from 4 to 19 after only two weeks,
which is a good indicator.
The album starts with a warbled drone extending to well over a minute on
Out At The Pictures that pans out to a crunching blast. By the time
we’ve reached Bendable Poseable, a dreadful synth cacophony things have
reached a major low, though ballad We’re Looking For A Lot Of Love has
some semblance of song writing that seems to have overcome them, but its not
exactly inspiring stuff as they’re still heavily reliant on, well, machines.
Another attempt at balladeering on the title track falls flat on its face,
principally because the singing and lyrics suck. It wouldn’t come as a
surprise if Hold On turns out to be the next single which would go down
well with clubbers – a club mix could be a monster even - though they sound
like a poor man's Scissor Sisters trying to be groovy - and Don’t Dance
may get a single nod too - whereas Wrestlers is just plain awful as is
the laboured and limp In The Privacy Of Our Love, the closer.
Next time, they’ll have to seriously have to deliver the goods, because Made In The Dark,
sounds as if it has been.
File under: Mighty forgettable.
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Out At The Pictures
2. Shake A Fist
3. Ready For The Floor
4. Bendable Poseable
5. We’re Looking For A Lot Of Love
6. Touch Too Much
7. Made In The Dark
8. One Pure Thought
9. Hold On
10. Wrestlers
11. Don’t Dance
12. Whistle For Will
13. In The Privacy Of Our Love
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Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2008.
For prints of any of Elly's concert pics online,
email Elly
or call 07765 862017.
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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
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