February 24, 2006

Hot Chip: Over And Over

Electro heroes of National Chip Week

Hot Chip? Geekoid droids who dress funny and look like they may have met their Thai bride on a Trekkie messageboard (“Beam me up love, fnar, fnar etc”). Hot Chip? White guys with a Stevie Wonder fixation (one word: Jamiroquai). Hot Chip? Makers of the most fun, funkiest track since a freaky-looking posse rolled up to a ‘Love Shack’ and took up residence on wedding reception DJs’ playlists. From the faux-Christmas bells at the beginning to the kazoo-sounding guitar in the chorus to the Dire Straits guitar solo, ‘Over And Over’
is not the most obvious song to scream “anthem of the new year!” but that’s exactly what it is. A rhapsodic, DFA-sized slice of smart pop that sauces about like George Galloway in a ‘Sheba’ factory, here’s where Hot Chip get clever enough to dispense with those honky Prince-isms, and replaced them with a James Murphy strut and addictive hooks. And yet it’s a charmingly British thrill – you suspect that what sounds like a muted cowbell here is actually someone hitting a kettle with a stick, plus there’s an arch lyricism to lines such as, “Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal/The smell of repetition really is in you” and nudge-nudge humour when it all goes Kraftwerk in the middle and a robot intones “K.I.S.S.I.N.G.S.E.X.I.N.G./C.A.S.I.O.P.O.K.E.” for no apparent reason. Electro-suave.

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