Hot Hot Heat - Elevator
Music Shopping Mall loves Hot Hot Heat’s 2005 album “Elevator”. If you haven’t heard of them before, you probably will on the radio waves soon. Hot Hot Heat is a heavy pop band from Victoria British Columbia who wrote the surprise smash hit “Bandages”.
Hot Hot Heat’s vocalist, Steve Bays, powers each song with his reckless-agonizing-anti-melodic tones; it’s hard to describe but his distinctive sound simply works. Guitarist Dante DeCaro jams hard and does great licks to complement Steve’s vocals.
Great tracks such as “Running Out of Time”, “Goodnight Goodnight”, “Ladies and Gentleman”, and “Island of the Honest Man” are light-hearted comedial songs; they have storying-telling qualities in them. The other songs aren’t too pop radio friendly, but the sound mixes in them have a lot of thrashing guitar, complex drumming, and torchered vocals allows this album to be honestly categorized in the record store’s Indie section too.
Music Shopping Mall note: If you are looking for a repeat of “Bandages” (off their first album), it simply can’t be achieved; honestly this album is less edgy than “Make Up the Breakdown” but is definitely still a worthy of popping it in the car a few times. For pop fans, you’ll repeat the first half of the CD, for heavier pop connoisseurs who like more of their raw sounds those are found from floors 6 through 14 of the “Elevator”.
We saw them in concert a few times; last time being at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver BC at April 2005. It’s nice to see them grow up. Although they are becoming polished, they still haven’t lost the touch composing songs with great beats, great lyrics, and that trademark voice!
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