One Life Stand

'One Life Stand' is a full-blooded leap into the unknown, an album that is awash with Hot Chip's trademark creative bravery and a searing emotional intensity from first track to last. Indeed, 'One Life Stand' is by far and away Hot Chip's most complete body of work to date - it is more cohesive & soulful than the group's ambidextrous 'Made in the Dark' (2007) and more ambitious than their Mercury & Grammy award nominated, 'The Warning' (2005)... 'One Life Stand' is a recording that establishes Hot Chip as one of the most relevant & creative bands of our era.

With Joe Goddard; Alexis Taylor; Felix Martin; Al Doyle; and Owen Clarke at the helm it is no surprise that on this disc they borrow, create and take inspiration from a plethora of influences as diverse as the burgeoning U.K. funky scene to soul music; modern r&b; Northern soul; gospel; golden age electronica; Detroit house; Southern soul; the sounds of Arthur Russell; Prince; and Theo Parish, and they all sit effortlessly alongside the group's signature pop aesthetics; wild electronics; off kilter beats; and intoxicating musical experimentation, in a way that only Hot Chip can execute.

The songs for 'One Life Stand' were largely written around the piano; the Wurlitzer; or the Prophet keyboard, and demoed at Alexis' & Joe's respective home studios. They were then taken to Lanark Studio, which Al + Felix own & run, to be fully produced & fleshed out with the three remaining band members. In addition, recording contributions from legendary innovators of their respective fields, Charles Hayward (This Heat) & Fimber Bravo (Steel n' Skin), as well as newer musicians Leo Taylor (The Invisible), and string arrangers + experimental composers Emma Smith & Vince Sipprell (Geese), were added to elevate the record further.

The finished record is Hot Chip's most up-front, coherent and melodically bold record to date - an uncluttered; warm & soulful; uplifting; and heart-on-sleeve collection. Featuring the archetypal Hot Chip song, title track & single, "One Life Stand", built on a metronomic but pulsing groove, and reaching up to a joyously simple / naive chorus of monogamous embracement, the album is from start to finish one of love - euphoric; nostalgic; brotherly; realistic even. It is mainly a sequence of club classic stompers - from the anthemic "Hand Me Down Your Love" to the life-affirming absurdist black humour of "I Feel Better" - tempered with the contemplative, tender realism of "Slush", and the romantic melancholy of "Alley Cats". Take it in, if you will... It's all for you.