"It's seriously not funny when reedy-voiced dorks sing about beating you up. It's just not. And when those jokes take the form of a laundry-list of wrestling moves, some of which I'm pretty sure don't exist, it's somehow even more galling" -- yes, yes, YES. Breihan, testifying to what makes Hot Chip so goddamn annoying. Then again, The Warning confused me when I first heard it too -- this nebbish-soul is what so many friends were raving about? -- before it insinuated itself without much fuss, the sort of record whose twitchy, billowy songs torment you in the bath or while buying swordfish at the local market. Made in the Dark is even twitchier and more billowy, the nebbish-soul loud and proud. The highlight for me is "One Pure Thought," whose intro guitar upstrokes and chirpy synth interlude (with the sung "I won't be on my way" bit) are begging to be mauled by an enterprising DJ.

I haven't paid much attention to the Herculues & Love Affair, but I've carried "Blind" around on my iPod for a few weeks. Yes, it's the only sonic setting in which I want to hear the formerly loathesome Antony, but the track still sounds fusty, tentative; this one also needs an enterprising remix (like Frankie Knuckles, wouldn't ya know -- love how the foregrounded bass echoes Me'shell Ngedeocello's work on John Mellencamp's "Wild Nights" cover)