Hot.Night.Crash

Wow, it's been a long freakin' time since I've posted. You get no apologies from me, people. Life moves in interesting ways sometimes, and mine is currently moving in the best of ways. This means I'm busy.

I can do this: pocket reviews. The latest album from Sweden's Sahara Hotnights is hot. That's hot with two 't's: HOTT. Never mind the lazy critics who like to toss of comments like "they're the Swedish Donnas," or the "female Hives." That's all bullshit. The Donnas haven't sounded this good in years, and they can't pull this off. The Hives? Gimme a break. Just because both bands are Swedish and play rock 'n' roll is no reason to pigeonhole them like that. The new album, "Kiss and Tell" is a bit different from their first album, "Jennie Bomb." That record was straight up rock and/or roll. This one could easiest be described as The Runaways covering Blondie with keyboards supplied by The Cars. Make sense? No? Well, it should. Yes, it's derivative, and no, it's not much of an improvement on the last album (which was truly rockin'), but I can't stop listening to it. Also, some lazy writers would like to say that the singer has no grasp of the English language, but I don't think we're talkin' about the same record. Seriously. At no point in this album can you tell that the band is Swedish. If you look at the liner notes, you see a lot of Swedish names, but the music itself is solid, with no accent. Next review will be "Who is This America?" from Antibalas.