Woah. Now this is a great record. I love it when bands come out of nowhere and release simply amazing records. Cartel did it last year, releasing my fave of 2005 in ‘Chroma’. After their EP they had no right to be so darn good, but they were. Hit The Lights are quite possibly the 2006 version. Their ‘Until We Get Caught’ EP was very good, but not great, yet they’ve managed to make the leap and release one of the year’s best records – and it’s only April. ‘This Is A Stick Up…Don’t Make It A Murder’ will blatantly be the soundtrack to many people’s summers, it’s just one of those great feelgood records that has so many hooks, harmonies and melodies it makes it impossible not to like.
And because it’s such a fun record, it makes it incredibly hard to review – it’s more a case of where do I start than what do I say. Pretty much every single song has a huge hook which begs to be sung along to, and even the songs which aren’t as catchy are still brilliant. The first four tracks whizz by in a flash. ‘The Call Out (You Are The Dishes)’ is a two-fingered salute to any critic-in-waiting, ‘309’ a little cutsey but still cool, while ‘Bodybag’ is one of the album’s standouts. For me though, the re-recorded ‘These Backs Were Made For Stabbing’ is sensational. There’s a little bit halfway through where the backing vocals shout “show a little backbone” and I swear the hairs on the back of my neck stand up every time…
Colin Ross has one of those distinctive pop-punk vocals and I’m sure HTL will very soon be spoken about in the same breath as Cartel, Valencia, The Academy Is and Fall Out Boy. On ‘Save Your Breath‘ he has an energy that begs to be seen live. The guitars and drums are standouts throughout, but on tracks like ‘Sincerely Yours’ and ‘It’s All The Rage’ they stick out like a lighthouse in a storm. Matt Squire’s perfect pop-punk production skills certainly play their part, but this is a band on the crest of a wave and on top of their game. The closing triple salvo of ‘Speakers Blown’, ‘Until We Caught’ and the incredible ‘Make A Run For It‘ is just as good as the opning third of the album, leaving you with an enormous smile. If I did have a criticism a couple of the middle tracks are slightly weaker than the beginning and end, although in the grand scheme of things this is a minor weakness.
To end, I feel quoting the first two lines of the record is necessary. “Tell me again how we’re easily forgettable/so formulaic and way too simple to be/at all original, yea so we’ve heard/It’s time to keep your mouth shut/while we show you how to rock-n-roll.” For all the critics that will inevitably slay them for being this years Blink 182/New Found Glory/Fall Out Boy, you cannot deny this is not the most fun record in a long, long time. If you’re like your music of the singalong variety, this is an absolute must.
www.myspace.com/hitthelights
Triple Crown Records
paul