Welcome to the first Dazzle Me This column for 2010 darlings! If you’ve been experiencing clouds in your coffee without me this year, fear not, because I am back in full dazzling force, and ready to share my favourite albums, gigs and mini mixtapes with you fine, musically fed people, each and every week.
I’m feeling particularly puntastic today, so first, ahem, chip off the block is Hot Chip’s latest offering One Life Stand. The title track has been getting lots of radio love over the summer and it finds Hot Chip being softer and more laid back and tingly in the musical sense, while still delivering a powerful lyrical message, a la ‘The Warning’ or ‘Boy From School’.
And in fact, that is the overall tone the album achieves as a whole. There’s a distinct lack of crazy dance floor fillers like ‘Over & Over’ or ‘Ready For The Floor’, but this is not a bad thing. One Life Stand is sophisticated and electronically lush. To me, each song feels like an epic little novella, full of charm and adventure, and I also have to say, romantic.
This is wholly evident in ‘One Life Stand’, and then there’s also the platonic lament of ‘Brothers’, and the cutesy comparison of lovers as felines in ‘Alley Cats’.
For me, this is definitely an album to lie back to; one that deserves your entire attention, especially on the first few listens. It’s more stripped back than some of Hot Chip’s previous albums, but if you do appreciate it from start to finish, it’s also a richer listen.
You know what else is rich and rewarding? Chips. I love chips. All kinds of chips, hot chips, cold chips (crisps), corn chips, shapes, cheezles, twisties, prawn crackers, onion rings, Smiths, Pringles, Kettle, Red Rock – if it’s savoury, salty and crunchy, it belongs in my mouth. Ach, did I really write that last sentence?
Anyway, it should therefore come as no surprise that from time to time, I enjoy eating chips for breakfast. I’m 100% with all those nutritionist peeps who nominate breakfast as the most important meal of the day. So much so, I made a mixtape about my favourite brekkie songs. Here’s a tasty sample for you guys xx
Tom’s Diner – Suzanne Vega
The perfect place to have chips for breakfast! This song has a bundle of great remix versions, but this is just Suzanne, a capella style, breathy and amazing.
[youtube Z66rDVkaK4w]
Heartstopper – Emiliana Torrini
It’s the thought of coffee pouring out of Emiliana’s ears that gets me with this song. This song completely encapsulates my university experience – crazy diets of coffee, cigarettes, missed buses, missed kisses, missed deadlines and more coffee. Especially for breakfast.
[youtube HtmY0tWNtDo]
Another Breakfast With You – Ladytron
Ladytron reminding us that even though routine can be great and necessary, you shouldn’t let breakfast become a monotonous chore. And you know what they say, right? Chips for breakfast, they totally spice things up! Catch you kids next week.
[youtube lRJd3cUB_8c]
