Hot Chip: One Life Stand

Label: Astralwerks

Is it that London quintet Hot Chip has edged toward the mainstream, or the other way around? Probably both — on One Life Stand the band sounds like nothing more than a better, even more confident version of itself. Lumped into the “dance-rock” nongenre, Hot Chip is really a pop band that just happens to use electronics and knows how to get down. One Life Stand, like each of its three previous albums, expands the group’s scope, vision and smarts: “Hand Me Down Your Love” brings Alexis Taylor‘s sweetly yearning affection into an instant indie-classic dance tune, while the strings that drive “I Feel Better” and the…wow, steel drums on the title track indicate just how boundless Hot Chip’s imagination is. Given enough time, they could and probably will achieve anything, but for now, Hot Chip is merely a handful of nerdy music fanatics making some of the hottest jams in the Western world. And One Life Stand is their love letter to you in 2010. (M.L. Thrope)