Hot Chip member Joe Goddard and vocalist Amy Douglas shared a new video for their song “Holding On Too Long.” It’s the first single from their new project HARD FEELINGS.

The song is a traditional house track with Amy Douglas’ powerful belting taking the central focus. Like many early house recordings, it clearly draws inspiration from soul, jazz and disco. Goddard programmed a deep bass groove for it, plus atmospheric synths, pads and strings. 

It begins with a sing-songy monologue from Douglas, “Where do you go when the happy home becomes a haunted house? A skeleton in every closet, a ghost in every room. You stop trusting your eyes after a while, then you stop caring altogether. Eventually, to love means we all learn to dance in the dark – put on our masks, become something else. Next thing you know, you’re the ghost in every room.”

The video features Douglas smoking a cigarette alone in her bedroom before dancing around a church with a professional dancer. The end of the video reveals that she had followed the dancer out of her room after they appeared behind her and led her into a tap-dancing performance. It’s a bizarre setting, but Douglas goes all-out on her performance while dancing provocatively.

Douglas commented on the single, “‘Holding On Too Long’ is the common denominator of the entire musical union of Amy and Joe. In this ‘opera of sad bangers’ here is its key aria, its ‘Un Bel Di’ from Madame Butterfly or the ‘Mad Scene’ from Lucia Di Lammermour, the unforgettable moment of the story wherein our heroine stands up defiantly and has her moment to wail, scream and cry her pain and fury centre stage to the world.” In other words, HARD FEELINGS say it’s a song about the devastation caused by the end of a relationship.

According to a press release, HARD FEELINGS formed after Goddard saw that Douglas was the writer behind Róisín Murphy’s 2020 single “Something More,” listened to her work with other artists such as Juan MacLean, Horse Meat Disco and The Crooked Man, then reached out to her publicly through Twitter, saying, ”Amy, can we make a thing?”  That thing became a full new project, with more songs to follow this debut single.

Goddard is no stranger to collaborations, including a recent single with Franky Rizardo called “No Judgement” and a track with Hayden Thorpe called “Unknown Song.” He is also known for releasing many remixes and last shared a full album in 2017 called Electric Lines.

Hot Chip as a whole has a similar remixes-to-originals ratio, but put out their most recent single in October, titled “Straight to the Morning.” Before that, they had shared a cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Candy Says.” Their last full album was 2019’s A Bath Full of Ecstasy. Hot Chip is a popular indie electronic group with five permanent members. Goddard is one of two lead vocalists/multi-instrumentalists along with Alexis Taylor. The other members are Owen Clarke, Al Doyle, Felix Martin and sometimes Rob “Grovesnor” Smoughton.