HOT CHIP
One Life Stand
Astralwerks
Rating: 
Hot Chip, named for a well warmed french fry, is certainly unique: five shy, bespectacled Brits bashing out sweet-natured disco tunes about monkeys with miniature cymbals. But One Life Stand, the group’s surprisingly good fourth album, swaps the humor for heart. “I feel better,” sings an auto-tuned Alexis Taylor on the song of the same title, while synthy strings tell us he’s lying. Best of all is the deeply melancholy “Alley Cats.” Taylor sings, “We have an unhappy cat,” as a 4/4 beat thumps moodily behind him. Pet psychology never sounded so good.
