2008 Woodie Awards
Hot Hot Heat builds fire with new album
Happiness Ltd. improves sound over previous efforts by band
Jenn Kennedy
Issue date: 9/18/07 Section: Detour
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Hot Hot Heat, probably known best for singles like "Talk to Me, Dance with Me" and "Goodnight Goodnight," have already been played on alternative radio and featured on One Tree Hill. The band, however, has lacked real lyrical genius. The successful "Talk to Me, Dance with Me" may have been catchy, but half of it was spent repeating the same line.
This time, the group is switching it up. Vocalist/keyboardist Steve Bays was quoted on hothotheat.com as saying, "We put a lot of emphasis on surprise this time around. There are lots of twists and turns and unpredictable arrangements and instrumentation choices-yet somehow it maintains an overall timelessness."
Happiness, the group's fifth LP, is a diverse album with a wide range of song structures, each one sounding unique, like nothing heard before from the Canadian foursome.
Hot Hot Heat has also gone a different route with the production of their music. "Harmonicas and Tambourines," produced by Bays and Tim Palmer (Pearl Jam, U2, The Cure) features four drum kits being played at once. The subsequent track "Outta Heart," produced by Hot Hot Heat and Marvelous 3 ex-frontman Butch Walker (Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects), features a full orchestra.
The evolution of Hot Hot Heat does not end with the production, however.
"Let Me In" is the first single and it's no surprise; it is very upbeat and loose, and even has a little disco edge to it. "Good Day to Die" is reminiscent of something out of That Thing You Do, but has a modern twist; the danceable "Harmonicas and Tambourines" is reminiscent of Footloose.
Although this album heavily concerns heartbreak and relationships, Hot Hot Heat also shows that they are socially conscious in the aforementioned "Good Day" and "Harmonicas": "Her Chelsea clothes and Brooklyn dreams / They're living in her head but dying in her magazines."
The album has its flaws, however. Title track and album opener "Happiness Ltd." takes way too long to start, its introduction lasting 55 seconds. Although many of their other songs have a long intro, this one seems like an eternity, unnecessarily boring us with quiet beeping sounds and false starts. Once it finally starts, we expect something grand to reward us for all that waiting, but it never comes. The lyrics are powerful, but it is not enough to outweigh the dreary pace.
Still, this latest effort from Hot Hot Heat is an admirable evolution from what the band has done in the past. They have fused together a mixture of genres from retro to pop-punk to disco, while the lyrics are darker and more emotional. Even those who have never been huge fans of this band should check it out.