While a lot of Hot Chip’s fans certainly have fond memories of the band’s cheekier and more brazen earlier albums, now that their fan-base is a little older, it’s comforting the band is making records that have become progressively more streamlined; grown-up and only stronger in their faith for finding enjoyment out of life. Music making as a means in and of itself.
With In Our Heads, main members Joe Goddard and Alexis Taylor have cemented themselves as one of the best and most consistent songwriting duos of the last decade. In the album’s more pop-minded first half, ‘How Do You Do?’ and ‘Don’t Deny Your Heart’ contain jittery house bass lines before releasing for the albums’ most fun disco-infused choruses. The former’s lyrics: ‘A church is not for praying/ It’s for celebrating the light that bleeds through the pain’ might be the best distillation of the band’s late-career turn into a party band that also values personal contentment.
There is plenty to love in the album’s more experimental second half too, with the band riding a gorgeous and moody techno groove on ‘Flutes’ for five-and-a-half minutes before Taylor takes control of it with one of the album’s prettiest melodies.
Perhaps the only complaint would be that unlike their earlier records, this album doesn’t really have a huge standout moment like ‘Ready For the Floor’ or ‘Over and Over’ Maybe creating those moments isn’t what Hot Chip are about anymore though.
As the super-smooth chorus of ‘These Chains’ goes: “These chains you bound around my heart complete me, baby, I would not be free”, perhaps the band are more interested in the smoothing out of the human spirit than making bold singular pop moments.
If this music is the reflection of creating a regular, everyday peace within one’s self and circumstances, I’m sure that will be fine with their listenership.
– Wyatt Lawton-Masi
