100 Greatest Tracks of the 00’s #79 Hot Chip – Over and Over

Released: 2006

When at first one writes a pop song, one must first get the hook right. The word shoudn’t have to mean anything; perhaps it’s better if they don’t. But one needs to remember that when being heard on the radio, the hook must standout above the rest – that’s why, after all, they call it a hook.

In amongst the throb and counter punch of Indie’s Great Revival in 2004, Hot Chip’s debut album Coming on Strong felt lightweight and too clever for it’s own good, but by the time Joe Goddard and Alexis Taylor delivered it’s follow up The Warning two years later conditions were more favourable and besides – they had the hook.

Instead of almost literally dancing around the mechanics of it all, they lifted up the bonnet on their alt.dance Nissan Micra and showed you the engine and how everything worked. “Over and over and over and over and over/Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal/The joy of repetition really is in you” sang Taylor, giving the impression of an English Lit teacher forced into rapping by an expectant Year 9 audience. In the background they employed their DIY Kraftwerk ethos to breaks and beats somebody had left behind on a rusty pen drive, but the whole thing together was somehow genius and immediately took up residence in unsuspecting ears. Hooks were rarely hookier.