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With electronic dance music bursting into mainstream consciousness, one could argue that Skrillex is the new Britney. Sound crazy? DJs now occupy the same mighty shoes as rock stars: headlining festivals, selling out arenas and nabbing Grammys. So if electronic dance music is the new pop, should indie dance-rockers prepare to share the spotlight? The signs were around even before the EDM bubble started to inflate: See LCD Soundsystem’s continued world domination, even posthumously, or the line that stretched around the block for a party headlined by the Rapture and Tanlines last month at House of Vans in Brooklyn. Among the trendy synth-rock acts riding the electronic-music wave to the top is Hot Chip.
Not that this British group is new to the scene—after five studio albums and nearly a decade of experience, it wouldn’t be unfair to consider them veterans. But Hot Chip’s new and very solid record, In Our Heads, might just lift the group from underground-darling status to electropop ubiquity. The house-heavy disc refines the fashionably disheveled crew’s reflective, synth-driven experiments, resulting in its most ambitious and gratifying effort yet.
At once clever and dance-floor-ready, these tracks are poised to become anthems for even the most skeptical scenester kids, from the blissfully bubbling “These Chains,” which pulses effusively like a warm electronic heart, to R&B slow-jam stunner “Look at Where We Are.” Does this mean Hot Chip will be headlining a stadium next time it hits town? In a way, we hope not—we’d prefer to keep these quirky Brits to ourselves. But it may be too late for that.—Marley Lynch
Hot Chip plays Coachella Saturday April 13 and Saturday April 20.
Download In Our Heads on Amazon Download One Life Stand on Amazon
Follow Marley Lynch on Twitter: @marleyasinbob
This article originally appeared in Time Out New York on July 12, 2012.
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