SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: HOT CHIP – FREAKOUT/RELEASE

Hot Chip
Freakout/Release
Domino Records

Hot Chip or Hot Chic? The title of Hot Chip’s eighth album references Chic’s classic disco jam, “Le Freak,” as well as channeling Chic’s Nile Rodgers on “Eleanor” and “Down.” Chanking guitars, synth bass, and woodblock fills mean the London synth band is down to funk on Freakout/Release.

The title song will ensure no parking on the dance floor, calling for backup the robot voice from Midnight Star’s 1983 jam, “Freak-A-Zoid.” Add live drums and Hot Chip actually sounds like a rock band–specifically former DFA Records labelmate and fellow disco infiltrators LCD Soundsystem, in fact album MVP and guitarist Al Doyle is in both bands. Guest vocalist Lou Hayter needs no style counseling, putting a fashionable cherry on top of the Prince-ly slow jam “Hard To Be Funky.” Hot Chip is not guilty of funking it up on “Guilty”’s  Eurythmics/Flashdance beat or when it’s nightclubbing “Time.”

Vocalist Alexis Taylor’s sweet soul tones on “Broken” make the pitch pipe harmonica chirps sound like Stevie Wonder playing Vince Clarke’s analog synths on a mid-tempo Erasure tune. Taylor reassures, “If I can find language I can help you, if I can find the words I will support you.” The premise that our ability to empathize is a power derived from pain is why “Broken” is flawless pop wrapped in electronic comfort. The warm sound of Joe Goddard’s confiding vocal on the tech house track “Miss The Bliss” draws you close in the dark, a sanctuary of healing with an ecstatic organ freakout. Put that in your bathtub.

The band challenges itself stylistically with a topical song in “The Evil That Men Do.” The down-tempo R&B ballad dials up the intensity after a Moby-like “Honey” piano breakdown and a compelling verse by the Edmonton-born, Toronto-based rapper, Cadence Weapon. Even during moments of lyrical laziness or melodic malaise as in “Not Alone,” an aura of sophistication and quality governs the album. We expect this from Hot Chip, but Freakout/Release further represents a progression that takes the band out of its depth.

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