Hot Chip
Made In The Dark
EMI/Astralwerks (2008)
[Indie Rock]

The electro-nerd band from London made a big impression in 2006 when they released their sophomore album, The Warning.  It was named Mixmag’s album of the year for 2006 and had two singles in the UK Top 40.  Hot Chip managed to create a style of electro-pop that was smart, danceable, and cerebral… well, maybe just a little geeky.  The result was a charming and addictive album.  Happily, Hot Chip manages to expand their sonic landscape on Made In The Dark while retaining the basic elements that made their previous album such a success.

Hot Chip has grown considerably in the past two years, it seems - and not just musically.  The songs here are generally much darker (as the album title would suggest) and more mature here than on their previous efforts.  The band manages to do melancholy without hiding behind their normal sheen of irony and cynicism (see “Were Looking For A Lot of Love”).

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Tapes ‘n Tapes
Walk It Off
XL Recordings (2008)
[Indie Rock]

Part of the charm of Tapes ‘n Tapes debut, The Loon (2006), was its post-punk leanings and its sparse production.  The song writing was unique, tight, and catchy.  The band sounded raw and real.  There was no filler on that release and it spent quite a long time on my daily playlist.

However, it appears that the producers of Walk It Off wanted to fill up the space that made The Loon so appealing.  If you listen carefully, you can still hear TnT’s unique songwriting style but it is buried beneath excessive distortion and reverb.

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Shearwater
Rook
Matador Records (2008)
[Indie Rock]

The first thing you hear on Rook is Jonathan Meiberg’s haunting, somber voice backed by a distant piano… “from the wreck of the ark to the fading day of our star, the light races, the light drags, the moon rises, the moon sags…” and with that you are off on a 36-minute journey into one of the best albums of 2008.

Meiberg’s voice can fluidly transition from a strong and full-throated tenor to a sweet and chilling falsetto and back again within the same vocal line which gives the songs a sense of urgency despite the understated backing music.  Each song is carefully crafted and contains an impressive array of instruments but the songs never sound overly produced.  The success of Rook owes a great deal to the orchestral arrangements of Mark Sonnabaum - there is not a wasted note on the album.

Rook can almost be seen as an homage to the 1988 Talk Talk album Spirit of Eden.  In fact, both albums work well next to each other in the same playlist.  Both are somber affairs full of emotionally charged, experimental music while being exercises in tasteful restraint.

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