Hot Hot Heat

In 2002, Hot Hot Hot Heat’s ‘Make Up The Breakdown’ bounded into the world’s lap like a giddy terrier, but 2005’s ‘Elevator’ stalled. On their fifth album, partly produced by Green Day and MCR Midas-toucher Rob Cavallo, the message is clear: pop is back. Big hooks and cresting balladry are shamelessly in-season (‘Outta Heart’) and call-and-response choruses are bigger than ever (‘Give Up?’). The trademark tempo jiggery remains and it’s all threaded together with airy production that underlines rather than overwhelms. And while there’s nothing here as incendiary as ‘Bandages’, there remains a sense of flow that previous albums have lacked. Hot Hot Heat are not the freewheeling scamps they once were. Thankfully, rather than mature into ‘serious’ musicians, they’ve rejuvenated themselves with the elixir of a purer pop.

Gavin Haynes

7 out of 10