Album Review: Hot Chip - In Our Heads (Expanded Edition)

The Expanded Edition is for collectors only. For everyone else, stick to the original. Sometimes less is more.

There are moments in music where one is forced to think that sometimes less is more. During the second disc of Hot Chip's Expanded Edition of In Our Heads, their killer album originally released last year, such moments appear.

In Our Heads is brilliant. Full of funky bass lines, '80s-inspired keyboard riffs and Joe Goddard's unique vocals, it picks up where Hot Chip left off with 2010's One Night Stand. Strangely catchy, this record ebbs and flows through different dynamics and tempos over its 11 tracks, so that it never feels repetitive. For the most part it's filled with high octane booty-shaking music, highlights such as Ends Of The Earth, Don't Deny Your Heart and Night And Day guaranteed dance floor fillers. The dub-influenced These Chains and slow jam Now There Is Nothing add to the feeling that In Our Heads is a well-thought out record.

Initially, it flows into disc two. Jelly Babies and Doctor could have easily found their way onto the original release, and Major Lazer's remix of Look At Where We Are is unsurprisingly awesome. But the decision to include a whole bunch of demo versions of In Our Heads tracks detracts heavily from the initial record. Why anyone but staunch die-hards would want to listen to poor quality, unfulfilled tracks is difficult to understand. But there they are; five of them in a row. Listeners would be forgiven to switch off halfway, but stick it out and reward will come in the form of Let Me Be Him (Joe's Dub).

The Expanded Edition is for collectors only. For everyone else, stick to the original. Sometimes less is more.