The boys in Hot Chip are masters of their craft, no doubt. They make catchy simple dance floor ready synth-pop gems relatively consistently. However, on their latest effort, In Our Heads, something is lacking. It’s hard to place exactly what, all the songs are good but the first listen finds the listener intrigued but not impressed. There are definite highs and lows on this album as a result of the creativity this group possesses. However, upon repeated listens the album loses more of the catchiness and begins to take on an increasingly dull vibe, which leads me to believe that this album has little shelf life. “Flutes,” album opener “Motion Sickness,” and “How Do You Do?” find Hot Chip at their best, however the rest of the album feels almost disjointed. These dudes are so creative and are oozing with rad ideas, yet it’s almost as if they spread themselves out too thin. The slow burning “Look At Where We Are” and “Now There is Nothing” are puzzling and will have the listener head scratching wondering what is going on with this album. Is it a mish-mash playlist of random electro-pop or a record? The latter is supposed to have some sort of cohesive flow, which is lacking here. (Domino Recording Co. dominorecordco.com) Scott Wolfe