Middle Aged Hipster record of the month. Beautiful Thing the second solo album from Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor is something of a still point of the turning world. There's a lot of meditative peace on the record, a plinking electronic soundscape that nods to different dance genres to provide the backdrop to Taylor's plain and unadorned vocals. It's all as austere and designed for purpose as Scandinavian furniture design.
Just as I like Scandinavian furniture designs I like this with some reservations. Second and title track Beautiful Thing is just that, one of the best things I've heard this year. Ratcheted up by rolling and building House momentum over the course of its five minutes to something quite magnificent. Taylor is someone who is taken very seriously, hence the instant Quietus and Pitchfork in-depth scrutiny of the record. He deserves it, this is very good stuff but the self-conscious hip artiness sometimes jars, especially when it veers over to the middle of the road and suddenly Taylor is just as much Elton John or Moby as he is Leftfield or Alex Chilton and you question the authenticity of the emotions and the project as a whole. At times like these you get the sense that this is all being aimed a little too cynically at a coffee table as much as the people sitting around it. For what it does well though, and that's a good 60 % of the album, I salute it. I'm certainly open to persuasion from the remaining 40. Time will tell.
No comments:
Post a Comment