Artist: Hot Club De Paris
Title: The Rise And Inevitable Fall Of The High School Suicide Cluster Band
Label: Moshi Moshi
Genre: Indie
Bitrate: 203kbit av.
Time: 00:22:06
Size: 33.76 mb
Rip Date: 2010-05-20
Str Date: 2010-05-24
01. I'm Not In Love And Neither Are You 3:08
02. Biggie Smalls And The Ghetto Slams 3:34
03. Free The Pterodactyl 3 4:08
04. The Rise And Inevitable Fall Of The High School Suicide 3:20
Cluster Band
05. The White Town Express (Get High, Stay Low) 4:12
06. Three Albums In And Still No Ballad 3:44
Release Notes:
Need to take a breath before I start this. à Yep, good to go. A long
title like that one requires such measures, of course. Right, so. Hot
Club De Paris. ItÆs certainly a pleasure to have them back so soon -
and with so much new material in tow. Two EPs in a year (the other
being the similarly long-winded æWith Days Like This As Cheap As
Chewing-Gum, Why Would Anyone Want To Work?Æ), and (apparently) their
third full-length out before the year is out. These guys arenÆt sitting
still, thatÆs for sure.
You could say theyÆre making up for lost time. Their last album was
2008Æs æLive At Dead LakeÆ, and in my opinion it did a pretty good job
of being better than æDrop It æTil It PopsÆ, despite the fact that it,
well, sounded the same. This isnÆt a criticism, mind you. It seemed the
band wanted to get their æsoundÆ dead-on before moving into new
territory, and æWith Days Like ThisàÆ was a natural step forward.
Their latest release venntures further into pastures new. While the
bandÆs trademark guitars and penchant for changing time signatures both
remain, this EP is for the most part slower-paced HCDP than what we;ve
become accustomed to, even going as far as to feature - gasp! - a
ballad as its closer.
Thins get off to a fine start with æIÆm Not In Love And Neither Are
YouÆ. The EP immediately comes to life with pounding drums and one of
the Liverpudlian trioÆs best riffs to date. It soon changes tack,
undergoing a brief transformation into an all-out rock song, laden with
handclaps and nifty guitar work, before the riff re-enters, leading to
a powerful, bass-driven finish.
An unpredictable structure defines its sucessor, æBiggie Smalls and the
Ghetto SlamsÆ. The song is all over the place in the best way, while
not taking too much away from the lyrics, which are as sharp as ever:
æThese days are stains on the state of play / You got stuck on the punk
rock band or find cabaretÆ.
Things unfold at a much gentler pace for the EPÆs highlight, æFree the
Pterodactyl 3Æ. Immediately drawing the listener in with its vocal
hook, the songÆs assured drumming an mid-tempo feel mark a welcome
departure from usual Hot Club fare. Its chorus ranks as one of the best
the group have written thus far: æBlue eyes grow ageless / The sky
feels contagious, when the stars equal spots on those teenagersÆ
faces.Æ It tells us that the band are well into moving out of their
comfort zone, with theirgreat sense of melody still intact.
The title track notches up the tempo. While seeming like a band on
autopilot at first, the song reveals itself to be another highlight,
its irresistible chorus being its main draw.
æThe White Town ExpressÆ, the EPÆs pendultimate track, begins in a
jazzy fashion, shuffling along in its 9/8 timing before abruptly
changing tack, its tempo quickening, siren-like guitars ringing out
over an addictive bass lick and effective backing vocals, before coming
to a halt in style.
The trio play the irony card with the final track, æThree Albums In And
Still No BalladÆ (three albums? Are they treating these EPs like two
sides of the same coin?), a surprisingly gentle affair which coasts
along on a lovely acoustic guitar line before fading away into an
acapella section (æThose games that we played all had rules that kept
them simpleÆ). Then a guitar swell is heard, and the song becomes a
stadium-sized foot-stomper, ending the EP in a most unexpected fashion.
I for one would like to hear more Hot Club ballads, because this oneÆs
fast becoming one of my favourite tracks of the year.
This band are nothing if not consistent. While you could have scorned
them for lacking much variety in the past, that old excuse is beginning
to wear thin. Having added a further half-dozen to their stockpile of
tremendously likeable material, the band have announced their return
with quite a bang. Bring on the third (fourth?) album, thatÆs all IÆll
say.