Hot Chip: Made In The Dark

Hot Chip has always been nerdy, but it's never

been nerdy enough to forsake an interest in how its nerdiness would be

perceived. Even the most antic moments on previous albums felt a little hedged

or uncertain, if not for a group of homebound English boys, then certainly for

an act regarded as a paragon of "dance-rock." That pensiveness proved a big

part of Hot Chip's charm, of course, but it's a lot more charming when measured

against a complementary tendency to go big, busy, and raw. From the unguarded

yelps and wiggling drums that mark its first track, Made In The Dark sounds more forceful and

lithe than anything in Hot Chip's past. The demented single "Shake A Fist"

swerves through a number of different big-bottomed movements (including one riffing on an old curio by Todd Rundgren), and the ballads (some

of a sort that John Waite would have killed for in the '80s) sound more

heartfelt. It's a motley mix that can make Made In The Dark sound like a different

album every time it's played.