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Hot Hot Heat - Make Up The Breakdown
Apparently, in an amusing swipe at arch-procrastinator Axl Rose, The Offspring are calling their next album 'Chinese Democracy: You Snooze You Lose.' Hot Hot Heat have gone one better; instead of waiting for style-thieves the Strokes to discover early 80s New Wave for their next album, Hot Hot Heat have gone and recorded it for them. This is the age of synths, unembarrassed organ solos and yelped vocals. It's pop, Jim, but not as we know it. The cascading first single, Bandages tells you everything you need to know, with the playful organ, stupid lyrics, Robert Smith/David Byrne vocals and bouncing 80s sub-reggae guitar licks nicely summing up everything Hot Hot Heat are about. What marks the record out from its legion of new-wave-obsessed peers is the sense of sheer joy. On songs like 'Get in or Get Out' and 'Oh, Goddamnit, several choruses, all equally great, fight one another for mid-song pre-eminence while Aveda and Cure-worshipping twins This Town and Save Us S.O.S veer off in so many different directions, you'd call it jazz, if each one didn't pull back to the rollicking chorus just in time. Sure, it's all a little contrived but at its best, like on No, Not Now, this is nothing less than glorious pop genius. The first great album of the summer, with at least six Feelgood Hits to release if Sub Pop could be bothered, and it's still only April. Of course there are reservations but Make Up The Breakdown is thirty minutes long and so close to perfect it really doesn't matter.
About the Author
Des Fitz
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