Hot Chip: Why Make Sense? [DOMINO]

Why you'll love it

This Domino reissue puts Hot Chip's sixth album back on vinyl. It scored 81 on Metacritic, and NME called it a record that finds the band carefree and stripped back to basics.

About the album

Most electronic bands add layers as they go; Hot Chip took them away. For their sixth album Alexis Taylor, Joe Goddard, Al Doyle and co. wanted to sound the way they do on stage, with one guitar part and one live drum part rather than a stack of overdubs. They wrote most of the songs in three or four days and recorded at Mark Ralph's Club Ralph in London and Angelic Studios in Northamptonshire.

"Huarache Lights" opened the campaign as the first single, a sleek, rubbery groove about the joy of the club. "Need You Now" borrows a vocal from Sinnamon's 80s dance hit and turns it into something brooding and hopeful, "Started Right" bounces, "Love Is the Future" and "White Wine and Fried Chicken" show off Taylor's tender side, and the title track closes on a kraut-punk throb. The original sleeves used a moiré pattern inspired by Bridget Riley, printed in more than 130,000 variations.

Doyle said they considered a double album but held back so as not to be indulgent, a restraint we admire and have never once practised at the till.

Also at Kops: more Hot Chip on vinyl · browse Electronic

Tracklist

Listen

On Domino (cat# WIGLP313S), a reissue of the 2015 album.