Hot Hot Heat: Make Up The Breakdown : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Unlike many retro-punk bands, Canada's Hot Hot Heat know better than to take themselves too seriously. Frontman Steve Bays yelps like a rockabilly Robert Smith, while his band pounds through arresting, cheery three-minute musical sermons in mod, ska, punk and synth. Hot Hot Heat prize the backbeat as much as the melody, sometimes more. They rock the casbah on the excellent "Talk to Me, Dance With Me," a combination of hollow drum hits, a moody funk bass line and guitars that prod and preach. Here, as on "Save Us S.O.S." and "Bandages," Bays nails his recurrent theme -- love simultaneously compelling and repellent: "You are my only girl/But you're not my owner, girl."

JON CARAMANICA
(RS 911 – December 12, 2002)