Album: Hot Chip, One Life Stand (EMI)

Having improbably won the love of the Hed Kandi honeys, Alexis Taylor and his Hot Chip boffins could have been forgiven for playing it safe and knocking out another dozen party anthems.

Instead, they've made an album which disrupts and embellishes the familiar (Daft Punkish vocoders) with the strange (sampled and sliced-up steel drums, creepy harmonising), and opens its soul about topics as uncool as monogamous love. One Life Stand isn't just a good record. It's a brave one.