Hot Chip - 'Ready For The Floor'
The success of Jo Whiley's Live Lounge does prove one quite interesting thing about songs. It's not that the true test of a song is whether it still works if you play it just on one acoustic guitar, because that it's plainly a lie. Some amazing things sound bloody dreadful on acoustic guitar, no matter how well you play them, and some acoustic guitar songs ARE bloody dreadful, but would probably sound pretty good if given a synthpop workover. So put that thought to the back of your head, that is not what I'm getting at. Done it? Good.
No, the interesting about all the cover versions in the Live Lounge is that they force you to have a really good think about how songs are put together. And by 'songs', I really mean 'the music under the melody', rather than the bits the singer is doing, which tend to be broadly the same as the original (unless it's someone with a narrow vocal range attempting to outdo Mika, then all bets are off).
Take this song, for example. On the surface, it's an entirely electronic confection, made of robotic doofs and bips, repeated assembly-line chants about doing things and saying things, and little high-pitched twiddles, which go "oobly-boo! Oobly-boo", in a manner which hasn't been heard in popular music since Abba's still jaw-dropping 'The Day Before You Came'.
But scratch the surface a bit (not the CD surface, you understand) and what you get is a warm, human, fleshy sort of a song, with a beating heart made of real meat in the centre of it. And the automated, unyeilding synths actually seem to bend and flex to allow it room to breathe.
It also sounds like Alexis Hot Chip is going out on a limb and making some kind of statement. Sadly, his whispery voice doesn't lend itself well to making whatever his point is terrifically clear, but the feeling of risk and commitment comes across. And the robotic arrangement only serves to enhance these emotional qualities, making poor Alexis seem terribly vulnerable and frail in his metal exoskeleton.
It's a bit like when they open up a Dalek on Dr Who. You're so used to seeing the metallic outer shell, the one blue eye, and the sink plunger they use to leave black rings on people's faces when they're asleep, that when they open one up, you're all the more repulsed by the drippy snot-thing which lurks within. Otherwise a Dalek is just a sneeze in a tea-strainer.
Now, where was I? Oh yes. The Live Lounge...basically this song would sound great with plugged-in electric guitars, or given the Leona Lewis histrionic makeover, but it's this cyborg version which really stretches its jet-propelled wings and flies. Real music, y'see. There's nowt like it...
Download: Out now
CD Released: January 28th
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comments
Agreed!
The boys make bloomin marvellous music :)