Hot Chip - Made in the Dark

(EMI)

POP

Hot Chip were in mortal danger of being ‘that band that did the over and over song’. Lucky then, that this, their third long player, is crammed full of bloody marvellous tracks. Providing some kind of parping, clunking, rolling, swaggering antidote to self-conscious teens plundering old acid house mix albums for licks and hooks, this is boisterous, high gloss, nerd pop.

The band owe much to the wayward spirit of The Beta Band, the crisp, thick production of The Neptunes and the deadpan delivery of New Order, but never manage to be less than their own men. Unselfconsciously pop but something you might want to actually play in five years time.