As a fun wild card of the dance and electronic world, Hot Chip always tweak their ratios of grime, funk and heavy bounce to make something fresh. Maintaining a sense of frantic energy and grit in their bones after all this time, Hot Chip leave us with a lot of great singles you could easily toss on to get the whole party bumping. Things start on a magnificent high in the catchy hooks of “Down” before the booming chorus and bass send the track soaring, and then you’re left to relish all the great percussion tones over and over again. The retro charm carries a lot of “Eleanor” up until the synths hit a steady run and turn the track into this glowing and electronic dream of a love song, that goes full-blown classic rock on every chorus. Something akin to Devo and Rockets (particularly “Ideomatic”) comes to the front of “Freakout/Release” as Hot Chip touches on angular pop rock bender, with a lot of fun robotic voices and rough edges to make for a memorable entry in their often glossy repertoire. The drums and claps make for a heavenly backbone on “Guilty,” as the ever-twisting road of its sound is always driven forward by these spectacular beats the band has constructed to give the song a real physical kick.
How often is it that a song about a place is quiet instead of rocking, “Kitchissippi” attempts to answer that question. The song has a calm to it that’s infectious, somehow feeling dripping with a tangible silence even in its chugging guitar. Kelly’s vocal is strong and radiant, not unlike the nature Kelly sings about here. The floaty nature of the writing lets Kelly meditate on her thoughts here, and let the track bring you back down to earth if just for a moment. A serene listen and song to behold, Kelly brings the mood of this place she clearly loves so much into the sonic world to capture that beauty. If this was intended as a way to remember the Kitchissippi when she can’t be near it, Kelly has truly crafted a potent tribute.
Few artists can harness the powers of the right producers and their own talent early in their careers to get an album that feels unique to them and strong as well. Nevertheless, Phoebe Green crafts an album with ear-tinglingly crisp sound work, and catchy ideas, to leave you with an album that while melodically familiar, plays a lot with the aesthetic of her tracks to make them work for her. There’s a great intro-y quality to “Break My Heart” that opens the record with a bit more of an ambient and meditative tone, with Green swirling around her own harmonies to create a dreamy ocean to play in. The gloves come off however on the masterful production of “Lucky Me” that feels so wonderfully textured that you can feel the edges of the space it’s built in, and exactly where each guitar and keyboard slips from a smooth tone to a jagged beast of a sound, and it’s all bolstered by Green’s sassy vocals here. A late 90s pop with a little Mitski charm makes “Sweat” an upbeat yet punchy track, with every growling guitar and hip hop beat working together to get you grooving and thrashing around. Leaning into her most Billie Eilish vocal delivery on the album for “Just A Game,” Green quickly asserts her own world in the sprawling synths, the layered vocal filters that turn her into a voice in the mist, over the radio and even a spirit to give this song a truly unreal quality.
With a slow and soulful country charge, Terry Penny moves on through “Letting Go.” The subtle hum of the guitar really adds a full energy to the sound here, with Penney’s otherwise minimalist production giving a lot of space for the emotion to ring out. There’s not an overt attempt to be catchy here, with Penney’s sombre delivery really driving home the feeling that this isn’t necessarily a celebration or diss song at someone, but more of an acknowledgement of taking that next step forward, as hard as it can be. You feel that growth too as the song goes on, not just in the added drums and layers in the arrangements but simply the scope of the guitars and voice here, with Penney closing out the whole track with that assertive and confident melody just like his own headspace within the end of the story.
Aussie punk rarely seems to get it wrong, and even in their most simplistic moments, Clamm bring that ferocity that makes the country’s east coast such a haven right now. Raw, addictive and constantly screeching with a little feedback, Clamm delivers the goods here. The wail and grind of “Bit Much” really gets you moving, as Clamm digs into a primal and overpowering sense of movement between their feedback and endless drumline to have you throwing yourself around with glee. The fuzz creates its own world on “Something New” letting that feeling of discovering a wholly fresh obsession come alive in the weird blend of groan and brass. The trading vocals of “Monday” creates such a wonderful sense of tension and chaos in their already unnerving style, and by the time they break for chorus, you’re ready for that rush of fiery but poppy writing. The main hook of “Done It Myself” opens listeners up to this great chant with the band, that plays off the otherwise smoky and laidback drive to get you booming from the sheer scale of the dynamics at play.
