Hot Chip
“Random Violence”
Domino Recording Co. (available via record label)
There’s a lot to unpack with Hot Chip’s new single “Random Violence.” It’s the first taste of English synth-pop band’s upcoming ninth album, A Long Way From Kansas, due January 8 on Domino.
“Random Violence,” in many ways, is Hot Chip in a calm and mature state. They’ve reached the point where they’re openly spoofing the Pet Shop Boys with great results.
The band themselves describe this as a “new wave power ballad,” powered by clean, driving piano and understated vocals from Hot Chip members Joe Goddard and Alexis Taylor. Everything else is credited to Al Doyle (who also moonlights with LCD Soundsystem), who plays bass, cello, drums, guitar, piano, synthesizer, and, yes, adds a little vocal for good measure.
You dig a bit deeper into “Random Violence” and the rest of this album, however, and this sound is less about growing up, or aging out of the club and the dance floors of the world. Instead, this is an album about being a bit tired with the state of the world. It’s exhaustion that’s powering this album alongside a bit of despair, concern over climate change, wishing endless wars would come to a conclusion, you name it.
It’s also a lot about death.
“Random Violence” also refers to the inoperable brain tumor that took Optimo DJ Keith McIvor, aka JD Twitch, in 2025. The song acts as a direct tribute to the late Scottish DJ, who was a friend of the band.
Lyrically, it’s a beautiful send-off.
Will they burn you in a furnace?
Will they put you in a box?
Down in the ground where the silence grows
And your friends will tell their stories
About a man who spent his life
Sending songs out into the world
Tall ships in the wind
“Last year in September our old friend and brilliant DJ Keith McIvor of Optimo in Glasgow passed away after a diagnosis of an inoperable brain tumour a few months earlier,” Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard shared in a statement. “He largely inspired the words of the song. He was a passionate music lover and a staunch believer in socialism. Many of the words relate directly to his death and to memories of being in Sub Club in Glasgow where we met 20 years ago.”
That’s a lot of weight for one song.
All that baggage holds it down as one of Hot Chip’s best in a long career that’s full of favorites.
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