Artist: Hot Hot Heat
Album: Future Breeds
Release Date: June 8th, 2010
Label: Dangerbird

Hot Hot Heat has been one of my favorite bands since Make Up the Breakdown. 2007′s Happiness Ltd. had a few perfect songs but overall it felt like something was missing, the heartbeat of the band wasn’t there.

I could tell by the first glance at the Future Breeds album cover this album was not cut from the same die that made Happiness Ltd. The energy is back, not in the same vein of Elevator or Makeup, but in a new and refocused way. This could be due to the band working in their own studio this time around.

It’s an eternal struggle for bands to evolve and create new music without going stale or repulsing their fan base. I’m sure it’s extremely frustrating for musicians to create songs they feel are their best work yet only for fans to yell out song titles from their very first LP of decade-old songs.

I believe that Hot Hot Heat has done just that with this album, they wrote some of their best songs and these songs will have fans yelling out their weird titles instead of just “Bandages!”

The old energy and wittiness of lyric are back, but there is a new element of spastic experimentation in the guitar solos and frantic synth leads. What I love about it, though, is that it never leaps off into just plain weird “creativity.” Sometimes I feel modern musicians let creativity take over. While by itself creativity is never bad, it can be a negative when the creativity becomes the focus and what’s created limits not only the appeal of the songs but the ability to define the sonic noise as a “song.” Sometimes doing the same thing over again, revisiting what once worked, is the best approach.

Hot Hot Heat walked that fine line and found success in Future Breeds.

The album should be purchased in either CD or Vinyl format. The art is a really fun illustration piece created by Keith Jones.

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