A Bath Full of Ecstasy

Hot Chip - A Bath Full of Ecstasy
Critic Score
Based on 29 reviews
2019 Ratings: #173 / 805
User Score
Based on 237 ratings
2019 Rank: #562
Liked by 10 people
Sign In to rate and review

CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Arts Desk
It's extremely grown-up pop music with a real kick, first on an instant level and then again, even more so, once it's got under your skin.
100
The Observer

These nine new songs see the band’s gift for melody and grasp of pop’s dynamics tweaked into transcendent shapes by house master Philippe Zdar and xx producer Rodaidh McDonald.

100
The Independent

For all its glimmering synths and the robotic pathos of Taylor’s idiosyncratic vocals, this is a record with both heart and soul.

85
The Line of Best Fit

Their ingenuity and introspection often serves as an antidote to brash, factory-made pop, making them crucial figures within the wider pop landscape. On A Bath Full of Ecstasy, Hot Chip remain as vital as ever.

80
musicOMH

A lush, adventurous experience, immersive and refreshing.

80
Rolling Stone

Hot Chip have always made songs that slip between the erotic and and neurotic, but this time out there’s another level, as the tracks slip sideways to comment on our upside down world.

80
Exclaim!

A Bath Full of Ecstasy provides hope within strife, encourages repeated listens as much for their danceability as the quality of the writing.

80
The Skinny

Hot Chip's new album is a giddy, nerdy and camp appreciation of all sides of dance music.

80
PopMatters

The few weaknesses of A Bathfull of Ecstasy – particularly the decision by the band to frontload all the strongest tracks – prove to be minor hitches in what is otherwise a characteristically superb song collection.

80
NME

Their strongest offering in years, where dance is an act of defiance.

80
Under the Radar

They have been put on this planet to create beautiful, awe-inspiring packages of synth pop and alternative dance, a charge that A Bath Full of Ecstasy more than delivers on.

80
DIY

Their more collaborative process has brought an album that, while rarely deviating from that Hot Chip sound, feels lighter and freer.

73
Pitchfork

The band’s seventh album is compulsively listenable, oddly moving, and stranger than it first appears.

70
Northern Transmissions

A Bath Full of Ecstasy is exuberant and lush, replete with grand, sweeping electro-pop compositions.

70
Crack Magazine

Another gem from one of synth pop’s most solid acts.

70
Spectrum Culture

It’s near impossible to see them as stuck in neutral when their lyrics reflect such earnest hopefulness.

70
AllMusic

Immersive, joyous, but sometimes insubstantial, A Bath Full of Ecstasy lives up to its name in more ways than one.

70
Loud and Quiet

Peel back some of the glowing layers of glossy coating, though, and you’ll find a beating heart; one that is ageing, resistant, religiously steady; a recipe for inertia. It’s just all a shade too familiar.

60
Dork

The new Hot Chip record, ‘A Bath Full of Ecstasy’ is nothing short of an absolute delight.

Doofy
73

Never have Hot Chip sounded more like the song Kip sings at the end of Napoleon Dynamite - that alone could make this their definitive musical statement.

Plats
85

"A Bath Full of Ecstasy" sure as hell feels like one, alright (I don't even do drugs). If you ignore the ugly cover art, the album is beautifully-produced, colorful and heartwarming to boot. I like the direction Hot Chip took here and they stay as geeky and quirky as ever.

Fav Tracks: Hungry Child, No God, Melody of Love, Echo, Spell, Positive

Least Fav Track: Why Does My Mind

Score
8.5
Exceptional

cfreemon
81

Hot Chip's signature brand of existential dance music is yet again polished as hell on their latest record, A Bath Full of Ecstasy. The exuberant synth beats are contrasted by Alexis Taylor's croons about love as expected. The lyrics on "Hungry Child" or "Melody of Love" are some you've heard before on past Hot Chip records, but the full-on danceability of ABFoE more than makes up for the retreading. "Hungry Child" in particular is a banger, with a sizzling synth ... read more

Kitri
76

No song is too straightforward or too fanciful. Really shows an impressively individualistic world of poppy grandiosity with a bohemian flair. Its textures are off the wall, instrumentation so well placed, and some intrepid, sloping vocal performances that captivate with lushness. It’s not just the production that’s illuminating, but its soulful expedience.

Love the pressing nature of “Melody of Love”, and how the vocals lay back, not as much of a force compared to the ... read more

TheSoundOfMuzak
50

HOT CHIP DISCOGRAPHY

First of all, sorry for lowering the track ratings for this album so intensely, but some of this songs are so "meh" that I am unable to maintain the 100s that you guys left on some tracks.

Just as a seer does, on my review for "Why Make Sense?" I added that there was a lot of potential on Hot Chip's "Dark Knight", "huarache Lights" and "Why Make Sense" thanks to their kinda lush soundscapes and less acid direction that ... read more

viniciusrsds
94

Tão pitico.

Purchasing A Bath Full of Ecstasy from Amazon helps support Album of the Year. Or consider a donation?
Become a Donor
Donor badge, no ads + more benefits.
Advertisement

Track List

1Melody of Love
4:18
83
2Spell
6:18
84
3Bath Full of Ecstasy
4:00
80
4Echo
4:40
84
5Hungry Child
6:05
83
6Positive
5:37
75
7Why Does My Mind
4:14
80
8Clear Blue Skies
6:45
73
9No God
5:38
77
Total Length: 47 minutes
Sign in to comment
1y
2y
4y
4y
4y


Added on: April 4, 2019