Though some of these tunes from the British synth/electro pop band might end up being the soundtrack to an Olympics highlights package next month (because they really are that catchy), after five albums Hot Chip can churn this sort of music out effortlessly. But it's not complacent and as well as coming up with deliciously dancey pop tunes like Motion Sickness, which starts out like Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express only more boppy, frontman Alexis Taylor also comes out with great lines like "a church is not for praying, it's for celebrating the light that bleeds through the pane" on How Do You Do.
And there is a lovely heart-on-its-sleeve mood to many of the tracks, like the romantic and cheery Don't Deny Your Heart and the sweet forlornness of Look At Where We Are.
In Our Heads is in the same league as their excellent 2008 album Made in the Dark, which made them one of the biggest movers and shakers on the electro pop scene (for a little while at least). Electro pop is fickle, and it's hard to make this often disposable music endure, but Hot Chip have done it here with an accomplished, jaunty, and gently grooving album - and it's clear they are a band who are happy in their own synth pop skins.
Stars: 4/5
- TimeOut