Album Of The Week: bEEdEEgEE SUM/ONE

There are two big reasons why SUM/ONE, the solo debut from Gang Gang Dance's Brian DeGraw, gets the Album Of The Week nod this week. One is a simple matter of timing. The release-date calendar always gets sparse toward the end of the year, and it's especially glaring this year, when the Eminems and the Britney Spearses of the world have new albums out and everyone else, at every level of music, seems to be scrambling to stay out of their way. In a climate like this, a hit-and-miss affair like SUM/ONE can get attention it might not otherwise get, as long as the hits hit hard enough. And that's the other reason why I'm writing about SUM/ONE right now. I'm thinking specifically about one hit: "(F.U.T.D.) Time Of Waste," which has Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor cooing "all I want to do is fuck up the day" over a windblown, propulsive house-music thump. (At first, I thought he was singing "all I want to do is fuck everyday," which I liked even better.) The song seems to be built entirely around Taylor's vocal, and that's because it is; DeGraw has said that Taylor sent him an unused a cappella and that that was his starting point. And so Taylor gets credit for the slinky hook. But DeGraw also does masterful work in layering synth-squelches and conga rattles and echoing backing vocals around that lead vocal. "(F.U.T.D.) Time Of Waste" is as good a Hot Chip song as almost anything on last year's In Our Heads, and its mere presence is enough to elevate SUM/ONE beyond the "pretty good" level.