Hot Chip, A Bath Full Of Ecstasy - album review
As the album title suggests, it's a happy place - and this new record from Hot Chip is described by the five-piece as a "celebration of joy".
It has been a whole 13 years since the Londoners first took over indie club dancefloors with that timelessly brilliant single Over And Over.
While their music at that time encapsulated a much darker, beat-heavy and industrial electro sound, this latest offering is much breezier, freer if you will. Both aspects of Hot Chip's evolving sound are brilliant, we are a fan of both. And the outwardly positive opines captured here are perfect for summer.
READ MORE: Hot Chip to play Birmingham
In total it is their seventh full-length, and it is not going too far to lasso the cliché 'seventh heaven' to this record.
From the moment the hopeful, breezy and uplifting keys carry Melody Of Love over our heads you know this LP is going to be vibrant. It's got Moby stamped all over the music. The layered sound is warm and inviting, and Alexis Taylor's distinctive vocals immediately leave their regular comfort zone and take on the pop stars of today.
Closing number No God is another breezy, atmospheric build that carries enough positive energy to light a small town for the night as it builds to its orchestral finale. However, there are other styles, too.
The New Order-esque Spell is a little closer to the Hot Chip of old, but it still feels lighter and more energetic. The big break-down before the chorus sounds like a huge video game hit of the 90s. Again, keys are used brilliantly to raise the soft vocals of Taylor to a higher plane.
There's some real funk infused in Echo, a big-beat bop that sounds like a late-night venture through city centre streets full of inebriated revellers spilling the party out onto the streets. It sounds great with the reverberating percussion and dancing bass.
The highlight is Hungry Child. The most flat-out dance you could hope to hear from the guys, it starts with a spaced out intro promising much before the various elements join the party to burst into the kind of lo-fi party anthems that populated New Order's 2015 hit record Music Complete.
READ MORE: Hot Chip are just faultless
It's the understated synth-pop dance album we never knew we needed until now.
Rating: 8/10
Hot Chip will perform at Birmingham's O2 Institute on October 18.
