Hot Chip, "One Life Stand" (Parlophone Records) The British technopop outfit Hot Chip's lastest album, "One Life Stand," is a softer, gentler follow up to 2008's "Made in the Dark." It's rich with emotional resonance, evoking love at every possible interval ...

"Welcome to the Hot Chip show," shouts guitarist Al Doyle, as if priming the crowd for a Vegas cabaret act rather than five Londoners whose version of dance-pop gives equal ranking to the intellect and the booty. But he's not wrong in calling it a show: this gig, in front of one of their biggest crowds as headliners, is ...

What makes an album British? Is folk music all just cover versions of cover versions? And what makes grown techies cry? These are just three of the dilemmas with which I had to grapple last Tuesday night, as the judging of this year's Nationwide Mercury Music Prize got under way. In case you missed it, Elbow won. To some ...