Alexis Taylor sounds fragile and sensitive even on Hot Chip's slickest club-pop tracks. When he sings a piano ballad, he sounds light a light breeze could rip his arm off. That vulnerability can be a hell of a weapon, and Taylor really puts it to work on his new song "For A Toy."
Next month, Taylor will release the new solo album Paris In The Spring. It's got contributions from people like Air’s Nicolas Godin, the Avalanches, Étienne de Crécy, and Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside. We've already posted the Lola Kirke collab "Out Of Phase," and now Taylor shares "For A Toy," a tingly ballad that borrows lyrics from Neil Young's "F*!#In' Up" and includes vocals from Pale Blue's Elizabeth Wight. Here's what Taylor says about it:
"For A Toy" is about self-destructive behavior – but it’s not clear what the toy or plaything or distraction is that keeps getting in the way of the path the protagonist wants to be on. It’s amusing to me that a song which shares a lyric with a powerful grunge track by Neil Young could sound this pretty. The chorus explodes in an unexpected way with a lot of sonic bombast – so the song really opens up with drama. It’s as much about bathos as it is about pathos. There is some humor here, in the grandeur of self-pity. But most importantly, this song is stuck repeatedly asking "why do I do this?" Music itself can be a plaything or toy that you can get hooked on – as much as the songs can be about getting hooked on something, or someone, or some pattern of behavior.
Elizabeth Wight adds glacial, ghostly vocal tones and interjections, which are closer to her opera singer upbringing than the deep goth house worlds she is known for with Mike Simonetti as Pale Blue. She brings the song to life.
Alexis Taylor directed his own "For A Toy" video, shooting it in a Tokyo toy store.
Paris In The Spring is out 3/13 on Night Time Stories.
