‘Joy in Repetition’: Why the Hot Chip “best-of” compilation is long overdue
Is there really any point in artists releasing a best-of compilation? If you’re a cynic, then perhaps you’ll just see it as a needless cash grab and a hollow attempt to remain in the public consciousness. Anyone who is already a fan or familiar with your work is already going to either own or have heard everything you’ve ever released, therefore offering very little in the way of a new listening experience. In the age of streaming, you might as well compile your own ‘The Very Best of Bob Dylan’ playlist and be done with it.
However, if you’re still in the market to win people over with the most concise representation of your finest work, then perhaps there’s no better way to do that than to deliver a best-of album, reminding everyone of all you’ve achieved over your career and packaging it as a means of justifying your legendary status. Some artists don’t have the privilege of being labelled as ‘timeless’ or ‘revolutionary’, and therefore their time in the spotlight is limited, with slim chances of suddenly cementing their legacy 20 years into a career.
So, when your singles discography is as flawless as that of Hot Chip, but you’re lingering just beneath the level of being perceived as ‘iconic’, then there’s every reason for them to release a best-of as a means of celebrating their time as a group. The question is, why haven’t they chosen to do so sooner?
21 years after the release of their debut record, Coming on Strong, the band have announced Joy in Repetition, the first singles compilation that takes a look back at this impeccable catalogue that has seen them release eight studio albums and numerous remix EPs of both their own and others’ work. In that space of time over that broad of an oeuvre, you’d think there would have been plenty of opportunities to do this earlier in their career, but now, despite the algorithm doing an annoyingly good job of collating their best work into a handy playlist, they’ve chosen to do so in an official capacity.
The London art pop five-piece have often been labelled the perfect festival band, and have headlined many of the smaller capacity ones such as End of the Road and Blue Dot over the years, admittedly performing to crowds largely made up of existing fans. Why does this matter? Because a festival set is ostensibly the same thing as a best-of compilation: you play the big hitters, and everybody remembers exactly why they fell in love with you at an indie disco circa 2007.
However, while some of their full-length records have shown plenty of promise of a band who will one day release a bona fide classic album, this is yet to arrive, and the strength of their singles has always overshadowed their larger releases. None of their albums truly hold the attention of the listener or manage to maintain a sense of consistency from start to finish, with Made in the Dark and In Our Heads being the closest examples refuting this, but compiling Joy in Repetition is a sure-fire way of rectifying this.
To a lesser extent, by virtue of the fact that they do, in my opinion, have a couple of classic albums, the same metric can be applied to Metronomy, a band of a similar ilk who have had a similar career trajectory in a roughly similar span of time. The group are also receiving the best-of treatment this year, collecting their finest moments from 2006 onwards, and given how their singles often eclipse the album tracks in quality, they’re another prime candidate for releasing such a compendium.
When it comes to the biggest acts, nobody needs to be reminded of Bruce Springsteen’s career with new retrospectives unless there’s a glut of unreleased or archival material to be offered up in addition. Frankly, any best-of album by an artist of that stature is barely going to scratch the surface for hardcore fans, who will all undoubtedly have bones to pick over the inclusion and omission of certain songs.
With an act like Hot Chip, we all know that ‘Over and Over’ will be there, as will ‘Ready for the Floor’, ‘Huarache Lights’, ‘Night and Day’, and so on. There’s little debate to be had over where their strengths lie, and that’s releasing a handful of heaters per album cycle.
Given that they’re the sort of act that still has a chance to stake a claim for their legacy to be immortalised, and for the cult status to live forever, releasing a best-of album is totally fair game, and they’re the perfect band to do so.
