Last Friday, Hot Chip released A Bath Full Of Ecstasy, their brilliant seventh album and the group’s definitive release, crystallising the sound they’ve become celebrated for – bridging euphoria and melancholy with colourful melodies, idiosyncratic vocalisations and pounding electronic pop rhythms. Ahead of their show at Glastonbury this weekend – where they headline the Park Stage on Saturday – the band have shared a video for album track “Spell”.
Having originally started life as a track for Katy Perry (Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard contributed to her 2017 album Witness), “Spell” showcases some of the more experimental vocal production found on A Bath Full of Ecstasy. Taylor’s vocals are manipulated to be playful and free, without obfuscating the words; harking to Prince’s gender-bending infectious lust.
Directed by Simon Owens, the video for “Spell” takes the lyrics “Like a spell you are under | And now I feel your curse / It’s all that I wanted / A memory in reverse / Forever I’m haunted” and twists them into a weird and warped bedroom that wouldn’t be out of place in an Evil Dead film.