Hot Chip: The Warning : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The second album from this London outfit is a shape-shifting electronic record with an overstuffed brain and a warm heart, as if Belle and Sebastian had hooked up with Aphex Twin. The Warning bubbles over with ideas-packed grooves, from the eerie music-box accompaniment of "Won't Wash" to "Tchaparian," a minimalist cut with popping percussion, synth squeals and a stutter-step break beat. Not all the ideas connect, but the tunes are plenty inviting: "So Glad to See You" mixes a skittery groove and cushy keyboards with Joe Goddard's elegant murmuring about the love of his life, and the mutant-disco "And I Was a Boy From School" finds Goddard and keyboardist-vocalist Alexis Taylor working up graceful, heartfelt harmonies. "Over and Over" shows Hot Chip aren't above dance-pop fun, setting an insistent pulse and serrated riffs under a catchy chorus that sums up the song's hypnotic effect: "Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal/The joy of repetition really is in you."