Hot Hot Heat, Happiness Ltd

Oh no. Hot Hot Heat has sold out. Our beloved dance-rock Indies have left the genre they have mastered for the world of horrid pop-ish fakeness. From their amazingly danceable debut, "Make Up the Breakdown" and the deeper, masterful "Elevator", Hot Hot Heat has met and exceeded expectations. Then comes "Happiness Limited". The sappy, stupid lyrics blend with the music, which makes Hot Hot Heat sound like a wanna-be Bravery.

But it isn't all bad. The album starts out with the very "Elevator"-esque title track, which is excellent until the annoyingly repetetive "It's over now" section. "Let me In" was a great 1st single and is the albums best track by some distance. The new version of "5 times out of 100" (With old guitarist Dante Decaro, might I add) is horrid, remeniscant of "Shame on You" from "Elevator". "Harmonicas and Tambourines" is another very good track, bordering greatness. It's amazingly catchy, and i've found it caught in my head several times. Then comes the worst track ever by Hot Hot Heat, "Outta Heart". It's un-Hot Hot Heat from the falsetto vocals to the failed attempts at cuteness in the lyrics. "My best Feind" is a good track, but sounds forced and overly poppy, and surely would have been better when produced like "Elevator". "Conversation" is ok, if sounding bland. "Give Up" is such a great song that you really start to question Hot Hot Heats sanity when they ruin the song with dance-music synthesizers (But note the creativity with opening with a cowbell). "Good Day to Die" is a fairly bland, mid-tempo song with a good enough tune, "So So Cold" again tries to be cute and tries to make itself a hit to no avail. Then, to end it all, the slow, sappy "Waiting for nothing". It's an ok song, but ends the album on a fittingly whiny note.

Overall, this album is a disappointment to everyone from moderate fans to Hot Hot Heat junkies. They took a drastically different route from "Elevator" and for no reason but to gain mainstream popularity. They basically sold out and sound like a Bravery cover band with no inspiration. What do you blame it on? Poor Performance? The arrival of Luke Paquin as guitarist? Bad Production? Bad Songwriting? Actually, all of these things. Let's just hope they do better next time.