Hot Hot Heat – Elevator

Mood Elevator

Hot Hot Heat enters the sweaty summer with the perfect album! Elevator kicks off the season with red hot rock-n-roll anthems. This radio-friendly album is full of sunny songs to dance and feel good with.The sound is a mix between Modest Mouse and Smashmouth (but with balls); it’s somewhere amid Punk, Indie and Ska. The vocal rhythms in songs like “Running Out of Time” are fast and flow easily along the lines of spoken word as if they are streams of consciousness. The instrumentals are energetic and have a good balance; no one player stands out. The compositions are creative, with nuances that work well, such as an aptly placed pause in “Shame on You,” or a slow acoustic beginning in “Dirty Mouth,” or a metal style guitar intro in the title track “Elevator.” The lyrics are fun and identifiable, most of the songs being burns directed towards ex’s and the like, with lines like “You’re embarrassing you/You’re embarrassing me” from “Goodnight Goodnight” and “We never wanted him here/He showed up anyway” from “Ladies and Gentlemen” or “The only thing constant was the constant reminder he’d never change” from “You Owe Me an IOU.”

The title Elevator is perfect not only because it is the name of the final track, but because it is a mood elevator. The energy of the album fused with the cheeky back-handed lyrics makes this an album to unwind with after a difficult day at work or class.