| HOT WATER MUSIC - "A Flight and a Crash" A lot of people seem to hate this record and see it as HWM selling out their old sound. Meh, I don't agree. Fuck these guys put out a million releases a year. If every single one of them sounded like 'manual' (easily my favourite HWM song) then I'd get bored. They're like fugazi in the respect that every record sounds different, but it's still distinctly a Hot Water Music record. And this one is their rock and fucking roll record. With a LOT of crazy guitar hooks. As always, Jason Black's bassplaying makes this band for me. But this time, you just find yourself humming little bits of melody four hours afterwards. The vocal approach has changed slightly. They don't have that much of the interplay between Chris and Chuck as much as on previous records. Instead, it seems that one singer will take the song and pretty much lead it the whole way. The exception to that is the outro part to 'swinger' (funnily enough, the rest of the song reminds me of the cure, anyway...). It has the classic four or five different vocal parts interweaving that are a trademark of this band, and something that turned me onto them in the first place. On 'a flight and a crash', you're also getting piano parts, some violin (I think), a little bit more of the slide guitar, and a few other newer things. It's a bit less raw, bit more of a studio record. But interestingly enough, there's a lot more energy on this than say 'forever and counting' (nice to be able to hear the bass properly for once too). The songs are a little shorter, a little more straight up and less groove based (which probably accounts for the more easily felt energy I just mentioned), and it's a long album - just fits into one side of a 90 minute tape. That's where the fact that the songs ARE shorter works. Because they're over before they get annoying. I can only pick one filler moment on here; the song 'instrumental'. It just sounds a bit like someone said in the studio "hey, I've got this rad bendy guitar riff that sounds a bit like I stole it from 'saint matthew returns to the womb' by botch. Let's just stick it in because it's cool and is fun to play". Maybe it's because the song ends so abruptly, but that song does just sound like a bit of a waste. One out of fourteen isn't too shabby though. And again, the sogn hardly even goes for a minute. so what are you complaining about. The other cool thing is the insert photo: Jason looks like Brian Baker of minor threat/bad religion fame. Shouldna shaved off the beard there son. Makes you look like a reformed smack addict. Anyway, if you're a hot water fan, quit whinging and just give in to rock and roll that doesn't rely on tight pants and hairdos. If you haven't heard them, this is actually a good place to start. It totally doesn't represent their body of previous work. But it's just so damn catchy and rock. Prediction: these guys come out late this year or early next year, and everyone is singing 'white white walls and hospitals, all of us feel trivial' for months afterwards. Glad I got in on the ground floor and already got my tattoo (you know I was gonna mention it in there somewhere). 14 songs, CD. |