To hear a full concert by Hot Chip from this past weekend, click here.
Over the course of four albums, the British electro-pop group Hot Chip has developed a style in which it mixes sweaty, thumping club beats and quirky melodies with the sort of heart-on-sleeve confessionals that'd befit a sensitive singer-songwriter. It's a strange combination, but also a winning one; never before has the group nailed the formula quite the way it does in "Take It In," from Hot Chip's recent album One Life Stand.
The track kicks off on an ominous note, with a descending bass cadence and wonky atonal synth lines, as singer Alexis Taylor delivers harrowing lines about racing against time and searching for love as if he's in the throes of a fever dream. "My heart attack abates after midnight," he sings in his vulnerable tenor. "But I was in the need of attention."
That said, "Take It In" isn't all gothy doom-and-gloom. When Hot Clip slides into the chorus — all sweet multi-tracked harmonies, cool piano hooks and references to soaring like a dove — the effect is unequivocally glorious, like a peak-of-the-club-night moment that ought never to end.
Listen to yesterday's Song of the Day, and subscribe to the Song of the Day newsletter.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.