Megan's Top 18 of 2008 - #7 - Hot Chip

My top ten has changed no less than a dozen times over the course of my trying to rank them. So at this particular moment in time, when the chips fell, Hot Chip landed at lucky number 7.

While their previous album The Warning helped them make a name for themselves, this one really catapulted them into the big time, and it's easy to see why. Made in the Dark is a dance-big beat-electro-folk-Prince loving-funkadelic triumph. It sizzles like steak on the grill in the middle of July, baby, and don't you forget it. For being a bunch of pale dudes from London, Hot Chip knows, and has perhaps always inherently known, how to get the kids to shake their asses. Never fails.

Some of Hot Chip's finest moments are to be found on Made in the Dark, including the first three romper stompers "Out At the Pictures", "Shake a Fist", and "Ready for the Floor." The most sublime moment for me comes at song #8, "One Pure Thought", the song that looking back on their 9:30 Club show this year most gave me the chills. O, that guitar, o those beats...slays me every time. And then there's "Hold On", that devilish imp of a song with some of the best lyrics of the year ("I'm only going to heaven/if it feels like hell/I'm only going to heaven/if it tastes like caramel"). Love it, love them. End of story.