Having mastered clever, chart-friendly dance-pop, Hot Chip have reached the point where they can do pretty much whatever they please. For singer Alexis Taylor, that has meant exploring jazz and funk with side-project About Group, and getting experimental on solo albums Rubbed Out and Await Barbarians. If those works felt pared-down, they’ve got nothing on his follow-up: Piano is just Taylor performing covers, Hot Chip and About Group tracks and original songs on the old Joanna. Taylor has said that the album was inspired by the death of a close friend, and the effect of hearing his quavering tenor shorn of his parent band’s synthy adornments is like eavesdropping on a deeply private recital. At times it works beautifully: opener I’m Ready provides a reminder of just what a lovely, evocative voice Taylor has, while a reworking of Hot Chips’s So Much Further to Go brings out a soulfulness barely glimpsed in the original. But in its second half, Piano begins to suffer from its stripped-back simplicity, when its sparse arrangements and slow pace start to feel plodding rather than profound.
