“Ready for the Floor” by Hot Chip
It has been acceptably put forth that what this narrative is based on is something like the vocalist spazzing while entreating someone to dance with him. But we’ll take it that the way the lyrics are repeated therein is more for artistic purposes than pointing to the idea of this character being mentally disturbed.
And the singer presently requesting the addressee to dance with him is an acceptable way of understanding it all, considering that said individual is metaphorically depicted as being in the act of “carving up the wall”, a term that reads sort of like being akin to a wallflower.
Moreover, it should also be noted that the vocalist is addressing a male. And due to the interpretably romantic context of this song, that has led some listeners to actually believe that Hot Chips is gay, a rumor that frontman Alexis Taylor promptly shot down, though the band may have been trying to market to a gay audience.
Also, in a way this song was never really intended to make sense in the first place. So with all of that in mind, it is also possible that the lyrics aren’t about dancing at all but rather, more generally read, the singer trying to mend some type of fractured relationship with the addressee. And understood so, the phrase “ready for the floor” is akin to the notion of now being the time for them to do so.
When was “Ready for the Floor” released?
On January 28th of 2008, it was the 2nd single to be issued from the album, “Made in the Dark”.
Writing and Production
The song was written and produced by the members of the band. By virtue of this, Hot Chip as a unit holds all writing and production credits to this song.
Genre(s)
- Alternative dance
- Dance-pop
“Ready for the Floor” at the Grammys
At the 51st Grammy awards in 2009, “Ready for the Floor” was nominated for the award, “Best Dance Recording”. However, Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” defeated it. Other songs that lost to “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” are as follows:
- Lady Gaga and Colby O’Donis’ “Just Dance”
- Madonna’s “Give It 2 Me”
- Rihanna’s “Disturbia”
- Sam Sparro’s “Black and Gold”
Chart Performance
- Belgium (2)
- Scotland (7)
- UK (6)
It was named the 76th best song and 3rd best track of the 2000s and 2008, respectively by Pitchfork.
“Made in the Dark”
The Grammy award-nominated song, “Ready for the Floor”, was released by the English band Hot Chip in 2008. The song is one of the singles from the band’s third studio album, “Made in the Dark”.
Hot chip released Made in the Dark through E.M.I., D.F.A. Records, and Astralwerks on February 4, 2008. The band has explained that they did not record this album in their bedroom as they had previously done with other albums. They stated that they used different processes in recording this album because they wanted it not to sound like their regular homemade sounds.
Recording secessions took place at Strongroom Studios in London and a variety of live venues. Hot Chip wrote all the lyrics of the thirteen songs on the original tracklisting of the album, except for the second song, Shake a Fist, which has some lyrics written by Todd Rundgren.
The album was first on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Top Electronic Albums chart, and reached number 109 on the Billboard 200 chart. In addition, it was also fourth on the U.K. Albums chart. Furthermore, it was included in the weekly Top 100 albums of six other European countries.
