Hot Chip's Ninth Album A Long Way From Kansas Arrives January 8

A darker road home

Hot Chip have announced their ninth studio album, A Long Way From Kansas, which Domino will release on January 8, 2027. They also shared a lead single, "Random Violence," along with its video.58 The title borrows from The Wizard of Oz and refers to the long trip Dorothy and her dog have to make before they get home to something like normal life.313 Coverage of the announcement doesn't differ much on the basic facts. Where it differs is in how far each outlet goes beyond Domino's own description of the record, and those differences say a lot about how this album is being sold and received.

The gap between albums is long by Hot Chip standards. A Long Way From Kansas follows Freakout/Release from 2022 and A Bath Full of Ecstasy from 2019.8 Stereogum put it at almost five years since the last Hot Chip album. It also noted that the band released Joy In Repetition, a compilation covering their whole career, last year, and that members have kept busy with solo work in the meantime.1 So this is a band coming back after an unusually long break, and the music they've shown so far suggests it isn't trying to pick up where it left off.

Distortion as a mission statement

Alexis Taylor's explanation of the album has been repeated in nearly every report. He describes it as a response to a world he calls harsh, discordant, violent and depressing. He adds that not every song deals with politics or genocide, but that these things were an unavoidable backdrop while the band was recording.26 He also says distortion became something like a watchword for the whole project.79

The band recorded the album earlier this year at Relax and Enjoy, the East London studio run by Joe Goddard and Al Doyle.215 Domino's promotional copy lays out the backdrop in broad strokes: deaths, wars, and climate breakdown. It presents the album as a record that celebrates life anyway, even as everything around it burns. The label also calls this Hot Chip "at their most primal," and that phrase turns up again and again in the coverage.13414

Outlets interpreted the sound in somewhat different ways. Consequence described the new direction as more distorted and influenced by punk.5 Audiofuzz wrote about flayed notes, colliding loops and songs that mutate instead of settling down. It concluded that the band is pushing its usual mix of intellect and dancefloor instinct further than before, without losing melody.10 Much of that language closely tracks Domino's own copy, which describes notes that flay, loops that crunch into one another, and vocals left as loose ends.1712

One of the press materials goes as far as calling this "the perfect Hot Chip album."1712 That is a label's claim, not a critical verdict, and readers should treat it that way. Until the full album is out in January, the only real evidence of how the band sounds now is the lead single.

"Random Violence" and the shadow of JD Twitch

The single is the most fully reported part of this story, and it is personal. "Random Violence" is a tribute to Keith McIvor, also known as JD Twitch of the Glasgow club institution Optimo.610 Hot Press dates his death to September 2025. Goddard has said McIvor died a few months after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour. He describes McIvor as a passionate music lover and a committed socialist, and says many of the lyrics come straight from his death and from memories of Glasgow's Sub Club, where the band first met him two decades ago.17

The lyrics make the subject plain. Goddard sings about a man who spent his life sending songs out into the world, and then Taylor joins him for the line "You gave me something to believe in."214 Under the Radar notes that Goddard sings lead for most of the song, with Taylor's voice coming in later.16

Stereogum offered the most useful critical comparison. It called the track a new wave power ballad that captures some of the feel of LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends," with orchestral sounds in place of that song's relentless piano.1 The comparison is more than a passing reference: Al Doyle plays in both Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem, and McIvor was a friend to both camps.1 Doyle himself describes the song's effect as "human connection."14

The video takes the tribute further. Jack Cole directed it, and it features Boss Morris, an all-female progressive morris dancing troupe.715 Doyle says the idea came from Optimo's Espookio Halloween parties at Sub Club, which the band wanted to recreate on screen with woodland spirits, cursed animals and wild dancers.48 The tribute also took place in person: the band DJed with friends at Sub Club on October 21 to honour McIvor.211

In my view, this single is the key to the whole album. Hot Chip have always treated the dancefloor as a place where people gather, not just a set of sounds. Choosing a eulogy for a club DJ as the first single argues that, in bad times, the club is still one of the places where people can grieve together. The Audiofuzz writeup made a similar point, saying the song turns grief into something communal instead of private.10

More voices in the room

The other notable change is about who sings. Beth Ditto of Gossip appears on "Me In Your Head," and Eddie Chacon guests on "The Garden."15 More striking for longtime fans is what's happening inside the band. Taylor says that Owen Clarke and Felix Martin both sing alongside him and Goddard, which is Martin's first time singing on a Hot Chip record. The album also uses a choir and plenty of group vocals.29 Taylor describes this as opening up the band's interior world and bringing many voices together.13

That fits the album's apparent argument. A record about chaos outside that answers with a crowd of voices is making a case for solidarity, and that matches the politics Goddard attributes to McIvor.

Small discrepancies, same story

Almost all outlets agree on the basic facts, which makes sense given how much of the coverage comes from a single press release. There is one small conflict in the tracklist. Several outlets list the opener as "Stuck Around."1716 Domino's own release page lists it as "Stuck Record," and so does at least one retailer's pre-order listing.1318 Since the label's spelling is probably the authoritative one, "Stuck Record" looks like the safer bet. It is the kind of detail that usually gets settled when the album comes out.

The framing varies in smaller ways too. RETROPOP and Clash both read the title as a band trying to find its way home.37 Domino's copy pushes a more upbeat line, saying the album shows Hot Chip know the way back.17 The difference matters. One reading treats the record as a search, and the other treats it as an arrival.

Why it matters now

The announcement follows an unusually busy year in public for the band. Hot Chip appeared in the second season of Netflix's Beef, playing live alongside Oscar Isaac. In May they marked 20 years of The Warning with an episode of Song Exploder.213 Audiofuzz notes that the band has been together for nearly 27 years.10 Domino points out that they are a Grammy-nominated act.13

For a band that age, there are two easy paths: become a legacy act, or keep remaking the sound people already love. The rollout suggests Hot Chip are trying to do neither. They are leaning into rougher textures and singing about loss directly, while still holding onto the communal pleasure that has always carried their best songs.

The tour will show whether that works on stage. The run starts at Berlin's Astra on February 26 and goes through Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris before reaching the UK and Ireland.16 Dates include Dublin's 3Olympia, Glasgow's SWG3 Galvanizers, Manchester's Albert Hall and Bristol's O2 Academy. The tour finishes at London's Exhibition White City on March 12.315 General sale started October 23, and fans who pre-ordered the album got presale access.14 The album will be released as a deluxe double LP with an extra 7-inch, a standard double LP, a CD and a digital download.9

The verdict, for now

Based on what has been released so far, A Long Way From Kansas looks like Hot Chip's most openly political and most openly grieving record. It also seems to rely on the same idea the band has always believed in: that dancing with other people is a form of resistance. Until January, "Random Violence" is the only real evidence. It is a sincere, generous song built around a friend's death, and it suggests the band's turn toward distortion is about honesty more than noise.