Review: Hot Chip - Made in the Dark

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Repetition is at the heart of what Hot Chip do. So it’s not that surprising on an album that sees the London band attempting something a little more intelligent and personal that the less kinetic ballads that litter Made in the Dark fall someway short of the mark. The album opens, somewhat unwisely, with its three most direct and danceable tracks. Initial listens reward the listener with little beyond the first frantic ten minutes.

Subsequent listens reveal a couple more gems hidden amongst the clangers, Hold On and One Pure Thought are the albums ‘growers’, although once this is established it becomes painfully clear that all these songs share the same technique of repetition to get the listener engaged. The bands tentative efforts at slower, tender and more heartfelt songs are jarringly uncomfortable at times, Hot Chip’s attempts at displaying a variety of sounds and a emotional depth to their output doesn’t quite work here.

The weaker tracks such as In the Privacy of our Love and Whistle for Will are decidedly average in comparison to the all guns blazing, greatest hitsesque opening. Alexis Taylor himself would admit that his voice isn’t anything special, this is forgivable on the more upbeat tracks were his vocals in essence simply become another instrument thrown into the mix and looped repeating the same catchy pop hooks over and over and over.

However when his mild mannered voice is asked to carry the slower songs and infuse them with an emotion and sentiment to compensate for the lack of catchy hooks, his efforts are patchy at best. Some of the slower songs do succeed in lowering the tempo without spoiling the mood of the album, the title track and We’re Looking For A Love of Love both succeed in revealing the slower, more sensitive side to Hot Chip.

However, semi successful attempts at ballads is not the albums most glaring problem. There is an uglier side to Made in the Dark. The half baked ideas and seemingly unfinished songs. Wrestlers is the main culprit here, both musically and lyrically weak it is nearly completely without merit.

Bendable Posable also falters and seems like a B side rather than a justified album track choice, especially as it immediately follows up the thunderous opening of the album. Some of these tracks are seemingly just missing that extra hook which could make them come alive when heard live. Unfortunately these tracks as they are should have been snipped from the tracklist or thrown out as B sides if the band were that eager to share them with us, afterall, weighing in at just under a hour and 13 tracks it’s not as if this filler was needed to make up the numbers.


Made in the Dark is very much an album of two half’s. Or maybe three thirds. The good is definitely good, the bad extremely bad and the ugly downright grotesque.

7/10