Fridays’ FTW #2

This week’s Friday hotties are brought to you on Sunday, in official British Summer Time! 

Lupe Fiasco – Superstar
Caught this on Radio 1’s 1Xtra live thing, and I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t someone completely shit. Catchy as syphilis.

Black Kids – I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You
Roll up, roll up, come see the hype in all it’s glory: Black Kids are here! Decent enough indiepop strumathon, but I just can’t see through the fog of acclaim. A sprinkling of the ‘Spree, a dash of Los Campesinos!, mix well with Florida sunshine and there’s a cocktail ideal for mid-afternoon festival sets, sunshine or not.

Hot Chip – Hold On
A right grower from the Chip’s latest LP Made In The Dark. Although I wasn’t massively enamoured with the record to begin with, I’ve found it difficult to shake this track from my mind following the belting performance on Jools Holland. For any song to still be considered good when it rhymes hell with caramel has got to be going some. Watch the video for some supreme keyboard humping from Joe Goddard…

Saint Etienne – Shower Scene
Another playlist perennial, from the maligned Finisterre LP, bumped up in the order this week. Prime example of what Saint Etienne do best, gorgeous synth pop.

Girls Aloud – Can’t Speak French
Pop music. It’s great, isn’t it? I hate the whole debate whether its ironically good, or plain good. There is great talent behind crafting three minute pop masterpieces, and this group have a pretty enviable track record in pop tunes. This is the latest in their conveyor belt.

Hot Chip – Made In The Dark

Hot Chip return to a scene with high hopes for their third LP, distinctly new territory from that encountered when releasing 2006’s Mercury-nominated The Warning. That album was released to an audience largley unaware of their charms. Signing to DFA probably helped in the hipster stakes, but the massive expectancy surrounding Made in the Dark can largely be attributed to two huge singles: Over and Over and Boy From School. These two great tracks helped mask some of their parent album’s weaknesses: length, derivation and oh-so-clever lyrical flourishes.

Made in the Dark shares some of those weaknesses, certainly the album is a few tracks too long. Strange too, is the proliferation of slower tracks. Not all of them are bad, the title track is a sweet soul number, with a vocal playing to Alexis Taylor’s fragile delivery. In complete contrast, the record comes out of the traps at a breathless pace. Out At The Pictures and the two advance singles, Shake A Fist and Ready For The Floor are frenetic, itchy tunes; the kind of thing that the group does so well. I still have a problem with the middle of Shake A Fist, a little too much on the ‘cool’ side for me. Of course, Shake A Fist  finishes brilliantly with a fantastic menacing synth rush.

Hold On is one of the LP’s highlights, conforming to the scratchy guitar and disco bass formula, extending it with funk rhythms: as if they have been learning about building great dance tracks from their US label boss, James Murphy. Hold On props up the second half of the record, much as No Fit State did on The Warning. When Hot Chip fail, they do spectacularly: Wrestlers and Bendable Poseable are just poor, both suffering from weak production and questionable lyrics: does anyone need a song made up of wrestling terminology? Certainly, Wrestlers particularly contributes to the second half slump, common to the three LPs they have released thus far.

Which is a shame, as when Hot Chip are on form they are a great band. Indeed, there is much to like about Made in the Dark, especially the first half. I’m sure that Taylor and Goddard are aware of what people see Hot Chip’s strength as, and respect to them for attempting something different, something that bodes well for a productive future. That doesn’t help the feeling that they could have done better with this record, especially given the anticipation surrounding it and their obvious continued potential.