REVIEW: HOT CLUB DE PARIS - With Days Like This As Cheap As Chewing Gum, Why Would Anyone Want To Work? EP

I’m a big fan of Hot Club De Paris, and I still play their greatly under-appreciated second album “Live At Dead Lake” on a regular basis. I’m pretty pleased then that 2010 promises not only a new record from the band but two stand-alone EPs, the first of which comes out tomorrow on 10” and download.

Entitled “With Days Like This As Cheap As Chewing Gum, Why Would Anyone Want To Work?”, the six new tracks show the band trying new things with mostly successful results. Opener Dance A Ragged Dance is the exception to the rule, deviating little from the band’s earlier sound, and perhaps as a result of this it’s the weakest song here. However, following track Fuck You, The Truth!, ushered in with a minute of percussive chimes and glockenspiel, is amongst the band’s best work to date with it’s catchy guitar line and infectious chants of “the carpet, the street, these hands and these knees”.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? sounds unlike anything the band have done before, with it’s simplistic ascending riff and stripped back percussion, and is another great addition to the band’s catalogue. It’s closing track Extra Time, Sudden Death which is the real star here though. Clocking in at six minutes it’s Hot Club’s longest song yet and, to my mind, their finest. A marching drumbeat, glockenspiel chimes, group harmonies and more catchy riffs combine to create a song which just oozes perfection. The closing refrain of “We caught the start, We watched the rest, Extra Time, then Sudden Death” may not look that special written down but it’s been stuck in my head for the past four hours.

Not everything on this EP works but when the band succeed they do it in style, as shown on Extra Time, Sudden Death which is surely their best song to date. That alone makes this a record worth buying.

Altogether now: “We caught the start, We watched the rest, Extra Time, then Sudden Death, We caught the start, We watched the rest, Extra Time, then Sudden Death, We caught the start, We watched the rest, Extra Time, then Sudden Death, We caught the start, We watched the rest, Extra Time, then Sudden Death, We caught the start, We watched the rest, Extra Time, then Sudden Death, We caught the start, We watched the rest, Extra Time, then Sudden Death, We caught the start, We watched the rest, Extra Time, then Sudden Death, We caught the start, We watched the rest, Extra Time, then Sudden Death” (etc.)

8/10

Jed. x