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One Life Stand
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 50 votes
Read user comments
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Album Info
Label: Astralwerks
Release Date: 09 February 2010
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rock, Indie, Electronic
Summary
The fourth album for the British electropop rock band aims for a more pop feel.
Also By This Artist: Coming On Strong Made In The Dark The Warning
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
NOW Magazine
The real shift is in their attitude, which allows them to embrace earnestness and write some straightforward love songs. It’s a strategy that could have backfired, but instead it has inspired their strongest and most consistent album so far.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
Hot Chip’s newfound sonic focus pays off, and with each record the band feels more like the five-piece that it now is instead of just the initial songwriting nucleus of Goddard and lead vocalist Alexis Taylor. For all that, however, where One Life Stand really shines is in its unabashed, open heart.
Read Full Review >Delusions of Adequacy
The best treat in any kind of music following is when a band who’s been dabbling in greatness for a while finally comes to the plate and smashes a home run over the fences.
Read Full Review >The Phoenix
Fuller than usual of slow songs and piano ballads, One Life Stand is their mellowest, most thoughtful effort so far — which means it carries the risk of also being their most boring. (Contrast is one of their secret weapons, though it didn't seem like such a big deal until now.) But keep listening: slow to reveal, its charm is just as slow to fade.
Read Full Review >Absolute Punk (Staff reviews)
Their ventures paid off supremely, as One Life Stand is an enjoyable and captivating listen on every level.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
While One Life Stand’s mindset is Hot Chip’s most overtly serious, the album is also its most musically accomplished.
Read Full Review >Dusted Magazine
We have to unpack One Life Stand a bit to understand how its ambition operates. There are, to begin with, some tracks so fine that there is little more to say, except “listen,” including the opening “Thieves in the Night.”
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
On top of being instrumentally impressive, One Life Stand is Hot Chip’s most emotional release.
Read Full Review >Dot Music
By narrowing their range and increasing their focus, and by wearing their hearts on their sleeves and not smirks on their faces, they may just have released their first, confidently Hot Chip record. And that turns out to be something rather wonderful.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
The frenzied interludes which sneak-attacked numerous songs on Made in the Dark have been banished, making way for a smooth, sleek, and splendid pop record.
Read Full Review >Uncut
It isn't a coincidence that this, Hot Chip's most focused album, is also their finest--more ruthless editing in future will doubtless yield even more spectacular results.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe
There is a new energy and focus acting as the perfect foil to Hot Chip’s lyrics, which have always been remarkably clever, particularly in the emotionally stunted realm of dance music.
Read Full Review >musicOMH.com
One Life Stand feels English in the best possible sense: it's cosmopolitan, unassuming and ever-so-slightly eccentric.
Read Full Review >Urb
A band/sound that could easily have been a flash in the synth-pop revival pan has actually proven itself worthy of revisit , over and over again.
Read Full Review >Observer Music Monthly
Something magical may well have rubbed off [while working with with Robert Wyatt], as One Life Stand not only sees them back on track, it's also their best work, paring down those past excesses and unifying them into an extraordinarily lovely whole.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
Marvellously, an uninspiring mid-section aside, this is still music to dance to. More than dance in fact; you can exult to this.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
One Life Stand hasn’t brought Hot Chip completely out of the deep hole they dug for themselves one album earlier, and it’s still not as consistent as the inimitable, career-defining The Warning, but it’s unquestionably more “Boy From School” than the histrionics of “Shake a Fist,” and that’s a good enough reason to stay with this band not just for the kids.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
Though this emotional nakedness is an unusual move after Made in the Dark pushed Hot Chip to a new level of attention and acclaim, it also shows they’re in it for the long haul.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
They’re not badly written songs, but as the band contentedly set sail towards genteel Robert Wyatt-esque pop-soul balladry, fans might be left back on the shore wondering what happened to the idiosyncratic Hot Chip they fell in love with.
Read Full Review >Clash Music
So yes, different to "Made In The Dark" but a more cohesive and more heartfelt effort too. One Life Stand sees Hot Chip let us into their hearts as well as their thoughts.
Read Full Review >Prefix Magazine
The thing One Life Stand has going for it though is its thematic cohesion. This is an album about demanding commitment (from your bros, partially, but mostly from your lovers) or at the very least hoping for it.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express (NME)
Two years since the last album, five members with wildly varying tastes and talents, enough ammo to blast out two solo albums on the side, and they still can’t quite make 10 essential tracks in a row.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Hot Chip's excellent fourth record shows how compatible those sentiments can be.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
One Life Stand is a worthwhile album peppered with lackluster songs, and not vice-versa. With Hot Chip, you tolerate inconsistency for occasional moments of bliss.
Read Full Review >Billboard.com
Richly uplifting arrangements, dynamic percussion and an attention to vocals (some shared) that's intimately communal mostly make up for some excessive sentimentality and steel drums. But what's missing on the album is an obvious classic.
Read Full Review >No Ripcord
All but doing away with the wry humor of the group's earlier work, Hot Chip's lyrics on One Life Stand focus on affection and romance in a way that says, “We’ve settled down.” However, the stylistic decisions betray the fact that they are still searching for their center.
Read Full Review >Alternative Press
So it is wuth British quintet Hot Chip, whose progression toward traditional songcraft has reached a satisfying plateau. [Mar 2010, p.94]
Spin
One Life Stand finds the boys settling down and growing a tad soft in the middle.
Read Full Review >BBC Music
This is an imbalanced record, and one that leaves you frustrated rather than elated. But despite the blips, they have dished up at least two cerebral bangers here.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 50 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
