The first time I heard 'Sometimesitsbetter”¦' I fell in love with Hot Club de Paris. It was a silly, yet beautifully crafted slice of abandon and I couldn’t wait to hear more. I got album Drop it ’Til it Pops that Christmas and I had it on repeat for ages. The relationship was sealed; we were an item.But time passes; new, perkier, fresher albums come along, and the love begins to fade. My relationship with Hot Club needed pepping up; but then, out of the blue, was our salvation; Live at Dead Lake.Except that, well, I don’t feel suitably pepped. I mean, what was I expecting? 'Hey Housebric'k certainly caught my attention and, for a while, I was confident we were back on track. Every bit as catchy as 'Shipwreck', it promised nothing had changed; the quirky, Liverpudlian jazz-indie-math rockers hadn’t changed.But you can take not changing too far. Maybe that’s the problem with actually sounding different and original. If you don’t change the formula, it’s even starker when you just plough out more of the same. Live at Dead Lake isn’t crap, but it’s the sound of a band on pause. And that would be forgivable if it wasn’t so blatant ”“ but even the weird yet charming little segues of 'Drop it ’Til it Pops' are repeated here. And talking of repeated, surely a golden rule of pop is, if you’re going to repeat a line over and over (and over), make it a good one. “I wasn’t being heartless, when I said your favourite song lacked heart”. Sorry, but that’s pretty rubbish once, let alone rammed down the throat five times in a row. And 'Let go of Everything' is a beautiful, endearing tune until they decide to repeat, “let go” for the last 30 seconds.I thought the third album was meant to be the difficult one, which doesn’t bode well. I think Hot Club and me are going to have a trial separation, but there’s hope for us yet. They’re better than this. 68%Links Hot Club De Paris [myspace]