Down The Dumper – The 2000s Part 9.

Here’s yet another group that briefly hit the big time, yes, another one. Hot Chip are a British group who have worked in various genres including Synthpop. They got their name from that scene in Only Fools And Horses when Rodney did a bad impression of a woman’s expression who he thought was flirting with Del Boy, who replied “it looked like she had a hot chip in her mouth”. Well of course that’s not true, but it would be good to think that it was.

Hot Chip have made a lot of quirky songs over the years, and their frontman is Alexis Taylor. One of their earliest hits was “Over And Over” in 2006, and also in this year their second album “The Warning” was released, which was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. Someone clearly thought that “Over And Over” would be the one that would be the big success, so this was rereleased at the end of 2006, and peaked only five places higher, but still nowhere near the Top Ten. NME loved it though, so that’s nice.

They would have to wait until February 2008 for their first and only Top Ten hit single in the UK. This was when “Ready For The Floor”, which was the first single from their third album, was released, and this reached no. 6. People seemed to be rather surprised by this, but overall rather pleased. There weren’t many other groups on the scene at the time making music like this, not even McFly would you believe.

Also in February 2008, third album “Made In The Dark” reached no. 4. It was at this point that it was probably something of a relief that “Over And Over” wasn’t released for a third time, instead they probably hoped for mainstream success with some of their newer singles, but they didn’t make the Top 40 again. In May 2008 “One Pure Thought” made only no. 53, to become their final hit single.

As well as working on many other musical projects and several remixes, Hot Chip are still together after two decades, and although their time on the singles chart is up, they have released more successful albums, their most recent being their seventh in 2019. They have also been known for their pioneering videos, although it must be tough for them for their videos to have been nominated for more awards than their actual songs.