In comparison to its predecessor, »One Life Stand«, »In Our Heads« definitely comes out badly. All the tracks are similar, the sound-experiments are much more well-behaved, and catchy tunes in the manner of »I Feel Better« or »One Life Stand« are nowhere to found. What I used to like about Hot Chip so much were the surprises – like the steel pan appearing at the end of »Slush«, changing and dominating the whole experience of listening. Unfortunately, things like that hardly ever happen on »In Our Heads« – it says quite a lot about the record that I keep talking about the previous albums, really. Still, the Londoners remain somewhat true to their sound: the first track, »Motion Sickness«, positions the listener between synth-sounds from the 80s, disco-grooves from the 70s and timeless singing. Tempo-wise, most of the tracks move in a DJ-friendly manner, somewhere between 120 and 135. All in all, this album seems to be aiming for the numerous »Indie«-dancefloors of this world. If you look at »In Our Heads« on its own, it sure is a solid, danceable Hot Chip record. Unfortunately, the predecessors have created too high expectations for it to really blow me away.
Black Country, New Road
Forever Howlong
Ninja Tune