Hot Chip - Freakout/Release (2022) [Official Digital Download]

The English synthpop quintet are feeling good, if conflicted, on their eighth album. "The idea of being out of control is always there in dance music, in a positive sense," Hot Chip's Al Doyle has said of the record's title and theme. But, as band member Joe Goddard pointed out: "We were living through a period where it was very easy to feel like people were losing control of their lives in different ways." So while the irresistible track "Eleanor"—one of the band's best, ever—sounds as shiny and clean as a soap bubble bouncing through the sky, singer Alexis Taylor explained that "It's about the world smashing into you, waves crashing into you, all-encompassing pain, and how you have to walk through it … The verses are about separation when families are divided against their will." ("Hold me gently as you fall asleep/ Even if you believe that there's nothing more/ I feel heaven knocking at our door.") The dark introspection turns interior on the industrial "Guilty"—"Why is there no stop sign when I start to implode?"—and goes tongue-in-cheek for "Hard to Be Funky," with its spooky breeze of synth and guest vocals from Lou Hayter. As the verses bear a rainy-day funk (only to shimmer in the chorus), Taylor ponders a paradox: "Ain't it hard to be funky/ When you're not feeling sexy/ And it's hard to feel sexy/ When you're not very funky." The band must have been feeling sexy the day they recorded "Down," a banger with traces of early Prince funkiness that samples Universal Togetherness Band's "More Than Enough." The title track has a Kraftwerk-like beat, "Not Alone" is delicate, like a ballad from a fantasy anime film, and "Broken" wields Pet Shop Boys melodrama—with Taylor sounding like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. Rapper Cadence Weapon lends cool lines to the theatrical "The Evil That Men Do." "Miss The Bliss," contradictorily, cruises on a blissful chill-out beat; Taylor sounds like a robot with a drone chorus behind him until a heavenly organ opens up the whole thing and you can practically feel the god light shining down. When the second half plays, it's almost like a house remix of the first part of the song: joyful synths, vibrant drum sounds, party organ

TRACKLIST

Disc: 1
1 Down
2 Eleanor
3 Freakout/Release
4 Broken
5 Not Alone
6 Hard to Be Funky (Feat. Lou Hayter)
7 Time
8 Miss the Bliss
9 The Evil That Men Do (Feat. Cadence Weapon)
10 Guilty
11 Out of My Depth
12 The Most Painful Game



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