Off the back of a triumphant 4-night residency of London’s Brixton Academy, which saw Hot Chip play to nearly 20,000 people in their hometown (more tickets than they’ve ever sold before), the quintet are pleased to share the excellent new video for “Eleanor”. A soaring cut from the band’s recent acclaimed eighth album Freakout/Release, the claymation video for “Eleanor” is directed by Alice Kong and like the track’s lyrics, takes you on an unexpected journey.
Kong adds “Building this miniature world for Hot Chip was a brilliant creative challenge. The music video tells the tale of our main character ‘Eleanor’ who, after a series of unfortunate events, hits a pole in front of an eye glass shop that will… Open her eyes! She then takes control of her environment and twists everything to her advantage by literally sculpting the clay world she lives in. By hand-picking every detail from a brick’s colour to a poster on a wall we were able to sneak in some easter eggs, I hope the viewers will have fun spotting!”
“Eleanor” also received the remix treatment with Krystal Klear, Smugglers Way’s own Braxe + Falcon and Austin Ato delivering shimmering new versions of the song. Stream the “Eleanor” remixes here.
New album ‘Freakout/Release’ is another dizzying high in a multi-decade career that’s seen Hot Chip continuing to innovate and develop a rich, resonant songcraft. Written and recorded in the band’s newly minted Relax & Enjoy studio in East London, a creative space that Al Doyle began building from 2019. Coalescing in the Relax & Enjoy studio was essential in establishing the album’s lively, full-band sound and marks the first time Hot Chip began work on a new record all together as well as reuniting them in the same room for the first time following their touring behind 2019’s A Bath Full Of Ecstasy.
Fittingly, harnessing Hot Chip’s irreplicable live energy in a studio space was in the front of the band’s mind, as they found themselves particularly inspired by their cover of Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” that’s become a setlist staple. “The idea of being out of control is always there in dance music, in a positive sense,” Doyle explains while discussing the cover’s influence on the new album.
Lyrically, Freakout/Release explores darker emotions than previous Hot Chip albums have, drawing from the personal and the political to chart the ways people survive even amidst immovable struggles. “We were living through a period where it was very easy to feel like people were losing control of their lives in different ways,” Goddard explains. “There’s a darkness that runs through a lot of those tracks.”
Over the last 18 years, Hot Chip have established themselves among similar British luminaries like Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode—a true gap-bridging between the worlds of pop and dance music, with a catalogue of songs that move bodies and touch hearts with equal impact.
