hot hot heat's happiness ltd.

here now is a song-by-song review i wrote back in october of hot hot heat's Happiness Ltd.

1) happiness ltd. - i think the title track of an album should be strong, and this does not disappoint. it's not the best song on the album but it's above average. it's got a good little intro, which i feel every opening track to any album should have. the multi-vocal chorus entry about 3/4th's through is good and, fortunately, not an overdone element throughout the whole cd.

2) let me in - jakob dylan wrote this song for lead singer steve bays to sing the lyrics to. actually i don't know if that's true but i would not be surprised, as this sounds a fair amount like something the wallflowers would do, except for the christmas bells part (which i think are a good addition). this is probably the most complete song on the album, if not the best. i wouldn't be surprised if this was one of the singles. but not that i would actually ever know, because the only canadian band that radio stations around here play is poo.

3) 5 times out of 100 - the line "tell me what my chances romance is" reminds me of the line from dumb and dumber... so you're saying there's a chance. uhh.. this song is just weird. it probably best fits a tim burton movie about halloween romance, if such a movie were ever to be created.

4) harmonicas and tambourines - this is probably the catchiest song, and arguably the best overall. the beginning sounds eerily similar to the theme music to the woodman stage in mega man 2. this is obviously a good thing. but this song also has *easily* the stupidest lyrics. so, y'know, it's like, when you hear it in your car, you want to sing along, then you hear the words, and you're like "these words are too stupid to sing with." perhaps my view will change though, as i felt this way at first about the killers' "bones." and while i actually still feel that way, i sing at least one word, which is the word "bones," except that i change it to "boner," because i'm 12.

5) outta heart - i'm not going to lie, i'm not a very big fan of this song. this just reeks of their producer telling them "hey, you need a sort of easy song with a dumb chorus that you sing 100 times with an overly-formulaic sound. see what you can come up with." and then this song was the offspring of that request. this is very similar to the bravery's equally uninspired single "time won't let me go."

6) my best fiend - this is another candidate for my favorite song, along with tracks 2 and 4. i think this song best captures the new sound they seem to be going for (in at least some songs) while simultaneously doing a decent job at keeping their already established sound (like the piano). if you're so inclined, it's pretty easy to dance to. in fact, if you didn't at least have your foot tapping when you first heard it, you probably do not have a pulse. it's also got a good intro, which like i said, i'm a fan of. i know some people are like "come on, get on with the song already," but if the intro is good, i think it only adds to the song, not detract.

7) conversation - easy to skip but also not terrible. there's nothing really complicated in this song. i think the lyrics were written by a guy in high school to his girlfriend one night when he had only one thing on his mind and she "just wanted to talk."

8) give up - within the first couple of seconds, i thought maybe i was listening to Toto. after that nonsense is over, this song picks up quite a bit and turns into one of the better ones. a good use of synth and indeed all instrumets (except for the woodblocks in the beginning).

9) good day to die - the lyrics are interesting. the music itself is not particularly memorable. and i'm done with this one.

10) so so cold - this song is kind of catchy but also kind of weird. the lyrics are pretty dumb. the vocal semi-solo (accompanied only by tamborine and bass) is just slightly tolerable.

11) waiting for nothing - this final song sounds like a quasi-ballad. it's progresses more slowly than just about all the other songs. i didn't like it too much the first couple of times i heard it but it's grown on me more now. i also like how this song obviously seems like the final song of an album. i always like it when you can listen to a CD all the way through and both the songs and the album itself had a recognizable beginning and end.

overall this has got a bit more of a dance/eletronica feel than previous efforts. i think the first half is considerably stronger than the second, much like this review. there are similarities to the bravery, somewhat to the killers, and to a lesser extent (only on some songs), the wallflowers. i don't think they're really attempting to be any of those bands, but after this album, i can't help but draw some comparisons. overall rating: 6.5 out of 10