Hot Hot Heat - HappinessLtd

Mon 8th Oct, 2007 in Music Reviews

Happiness Ltd marks the third full length album (fourth, if you count the self titled effort that did not feature Steve Bays as main vocalist) for the Canadian rockers who brought you such indie pop hits as Bandages, Running Out Of Time, Goodnight, Goodnight and 5 Times Out of 100. It is with this strong history that this new release sounds a little lacklustre in comparison upon first listen.

The title track is placed at pole position, a depressing tale about losing the girl with strong and very personal lyrics. The music is suitably soft to match the subject matter, the whole thing basically setting the scene for an album full of equally deep and very personal sentiments about life, love and loss.

Let Me In is the lead single receiving a fair bit of a beating on radio of late. The keys are back and feature heavily throughout, bringing back the pop that we have come to expect of them. It is lyrically connected to the preceding track, Bays’ reflecting on closing himself off to said girl and trying to make amends without success.

Disappointingly the band has opted to re-record old favourite, 5 Times Out of 100, previously off the 2002 Sub Pop EP, Le Le Low. It remains fairly true to the original, though as the dynamic of the band has changed over the past five years so has the feel of the song and it should have been left well alone.

Natural progression or conscious effort, Hot Hot Heat have taken this opportunity to generally mellow out their sound. Outta Heart is a point in case, and if I didn’t know better I would have thought it was a track from our own Dan Kelly & The Alpha Males, and there appears to also be some extra strings thrown in to the mix.

My Best Friend picks up the pace for a little bit, a more upbeat and straight rock number with plenty of crashing cymbals and bouncing snares. It then heads back to more familiar territory with Conversation, a track with that old-time feel that would sound perfect if it were played on vinyl.

Most albums have a – œfeel’ to them, uniting each track in a way that screams a relationship to the others without any obvious link, a feel that this album is almost completely devoid of. It makes perfect sense whence upon inspecting the credits that the band utilised four different producers (more, if you include the self-produced numbers) and three mixers. The record is one big mish mash of different styles, sounds and textures leaving the listener confused and discombobulated.

It’s hard to be really convinced by this album. The content is overwhelmingly dark and depressing, and whilst remaining pop it lacks the hooks of earlier releases. Happiness Ltd is one of those albums that requires several listens before becoming likeable. It’s just getting through those first few and very tiring listens that may prove more difficult than possible.