Hot Chip Hones the Meaning of ‘Ecstasy’
The great dance band’s seventh album, <em>A Bath Full of Ecstasy</em>, delivers pleasure while questioning it.
A recent Hot Chip music video portrays a bickering bohemian L.A. couple who, mysteriously, find that the band’s single “Hungry Child” is playing on loop in their life. It follows them wherever they go—taxis, therapy—and is audible to those around them. This is torture. “I hate house music!” a passerby on the street screams, and the couple seem to agree with him.
The video is funny, but preposterous—and not just for its surreal concept.Ever since “” was released, in early April, I, but the song’s so good that it’s hard not to dislike the video’s (already obnoxious) characters for never taking a moment to try to enjoy what they’re hearing. It’s almost like Hot Chip’s subverting its own song, shy about its power.
