Since first smashing into the mainstream consciousness in 2003 with their sophomore album, Make Up The Breakdown, Hot Hot Heat has charted a surprising and unlikely course to rock stardom. Songs like “Bandages” and “No, Not Now” tread a complicated line that successfully feminized post-punk thanks to the band's ability to cross tight and succinct New Wave-y compositional themes (synths, robotic rhythms, fried lyrical repetition and singer Steve Bays' higher pitched and melodic vocals) and sublime pop savvy. Simply said, in the contexts of both new wave and punk rock, Hot Hot Heat broke the mould and made it okay to be snotty and have a heart and not follow any one paradigm or formula to present the idea.
By the same token though, Hot Hot Heat also helped to soften a lot of the corners on post-punk with that vaunted pop savvy and so open the floodgates for all manner of limp-wristed pretenders to get a little notice; in the line of double-edged swords, that's a significant one. Were Hot Hot Heat aware of what they were doing? They must have known; and it must have made the band feel a little self-conscious because, on Future Breeds, Hot Hot Heat turns their own boat around, gets a set and sets to the task restoring the edges that they've spent the last decade shaving down.
The difference in the aptly-entitled Future Breeds registers immediately as “YVR” blasts the record open like a cannon and knocks listeners right off their feet. Fans will be shocked; never before has guitarist Luke Paquin played with such ferocity or abandon while new recruit Parker Bosley's bass roars right out of the gate and Bays' keyboards set fire to eardrums, and the results are an infectious wonder from note one. Anyone within earshot will be asking the same question: “What got into Hot Hot Heat that prompted this?” The answer isn't exactly clear here, but the first easy answer is that, after four albums' time of playing the journeyman band (those four were released on four different labels), Hot Hot Heat has decided to step up to the plate and everything just fell into place at the same time. That's certainly how it sounds here – songs including “Times A Thousand,” “Implosionatic,” “Zero Results,” “JFK's LSD” “What Is Rational?” all brim with a cocksure and confrontational air as Paul Hawley's drums seem to bark and call listeners to attention before Paquin's guitars sail right past their ears and keyboards press power drills to temples to make a point. The effect of the band's single, solid attack is is exhilarating like a rollercoaster which is to say that while listeners are always able to see what's coming around every corner of Future Breeds' dozen tracks, they still feel compelled to scream in excitement when the adrenaline does hit them on a great big build or sobering synth squeal (as is the case in songs like “21@12” and “Implosionatic”). If those moments only came on occasion, they'd end up being the color that gives the record just that little extra push which would keep listeners engaged but, because the thrills seem to come every fifteen to thirty seconds and really put the moments when Hot Hot Heat changes sounds dramatically (the squeal at both the beginning and end of “21@12”seems to command that listeners notice the far more organic sounds in between) into fantastic relief and thereby launch the record clean over the top.
Even with that in mind though, the funny thing about Future Breeds is that it's unlikely anyone saw it coming from Hot Hot Heat; a decade of history or not. Long-time fans probably knew that the band had something like this in them, but never expected that such an album might ever surface because it is a pretty significant step out; for the first time Hot Hot Heat sounds genuinely urgent and lyrically captivating on Future Breeds, where once the band came off as simply garish, fluffy and repetitive. That growth implies a mature change and, if that's the case, any new records released from here will deserve a whole lot more attention.
Artist:
www.hothotheat.com/
www.myspace.com/hothotheat
Download:
Hot Hot Heat – “Goddess On The Prairie” – Future Breeds
Album:
Future Breeds is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
