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Hot Chip, "The Warning"
At its best, Hot Chip’s second album has a handful of decent singles. At its most uninspired, though, it’s bogged down by a lack of imaginative beats and a reliance on fashion over depth.
Apart from some tracks like "Over and Over," "(Just Like We) Breakdown," or "And I Was a Boy From School," much of the album is typical dance music with an affectation of self-importance. When the band tries their hand at ballads, such as "Look After Me," the results are even worse. Their macho taunts on the title track are just silly, especially since the rest of the music doesn’t reflect their tongue-in-cheek intentions. There isn't a whole lot going on here to distinguish Hot Chip from a dozen other groups making music like this. Yet the album isn’t a complete write-off. The best tracks deserve to be compiled alongside their peers, and perhaps clever remixes will grant them a longer shelf life. As a complete work, however, The Warning didn't hold my attention.
