REVIEW

Hot Chip channels '80s vibe on latest

By AP's Sian Watson

[September 11, 2012]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Hot Chip, "In Our Heads" (Domino)

Hot Chip rules the dance floor. With five albums now spanning eight years, each record has produced at least one track that could be heard blaring at an indie disco -- from "Over and Over" to "Boy From School" to the anthem "One Life Stand."

You would not be judged for thinking you had been transported to a 1980s era dance floor on first listen to Hot Chip's latest, "In Our Heads." The influence seems to be a common vein throughout the record.

The album's opener "Motion Sickness" hooks you from the beginning. Layered keyboards, synth and drums compliment each other before the crescendo of the vocal, which employs intriguing, tongue-in-cheek lyrics: "Everything spins from my head/to my compact disc."

There's more synth and cymbals on "Don't Deny Your Heart" and the lyrics are in keeping with the London-based group's apt tag of "electro-romantics": "Don't deny your heart/Don't destroy your heart."

The band uses such a massively diverse collection of instruments, from saxophone to steel pan to marimba, it's sometimes hard to put your finger on what you're actually listening to. Just go with it, the aural concoction works.

CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: "Night and Day" is an obvious first single and dance-floor smasher. The lyrics are seedy: "Let's sweat," singer Alexis Taylor suggests.

[Associated Press; By SIAN WATSON]

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