"Solo projects offer a similar psychological test. When artists in successful groups venture off on their own, their audiences must analyze their work with a new mindset, re-calculating their strengths and weaknesses, the baseline assessment always some form of: 'Do they still have the sauce alone?'"
"Alexis Taylor's main gig is dance band Hot Chip, a group with a 26-year legacy, and by now his solo output has settled into a predictable counterpoint to the group's work: just as finely crafted, but usually more delicate and less exuberant."
"Now Taylor sounds thrilled to jettison any assumptions about what an Alexis Taylor solo album should be. Paris in the Spring is, as he put in the album announcement, about 'freedom-from constraints, from preconceptions, and from genre.'"
Alexis Taylor's latest solo album, Paris in the Spring, deliberately departs from the predictable pattern of his previous solo work. While his main project Hot Chip maintains a 26-year legacy, Taylor's solo albums have typically offered delicate, subdued counterpoints to the group's exuberance. This new album, created with collaborators including Air's Nicolas Godin at his Paris studio, represents Taylor's intentional rejection of preconceptions about what his solo work should sound like. The album spans diverse styles from melancholic ballads to nu-disco, reflecting Taylor's stated goal of achieving freedom from constraints and genre limitations, resulting in a collection that prioritizes artistic exploration over thematic cohesion.
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