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Hot Mulligan

Why Would I Watch

Written by: PP on 01/10/2023 19:57:42

Not gonna lie, I was worried about the direction taken by Hot Mulligan on their "I Won't Reach Out To You" EP two years ago. After all, their sophomore album "You'll Be Fine" was a mighty breakthrough and sounded like you loaded nitroglycerin into a barrel and rolled it down a flight of stairs just to see how hard it would explode. Those cacophonic screams and flurry of energy are back big time on the third album "Why Would I Watch", where the band appears to even have taken it up a notch in places.

Indeed, vocalist Tades Sanville's brilliantly crackling vocals that land somewhere perfectly between scratchy cleans and scream-laden ones are back with a vengeance. He sounds like he's being tormented by every emotion, by every line he's yelping out. His vocals are raw, passionate, and genuine every step of the way, sounding like the sonic equivalent of wearing your heart on your sleeve. They are throaty, but decipherable, lofty when needed, and intense and in-your-face at other times.

The instrumentals are spazzy and like written for (or by?) someone with ADD, complete with complex, intricate segments and mathy leads that are all over the place. Together, these form a tumultuous energy, soaring choruses, and an emotional charge unlike almost anything you've heard - just listen to the ridiculously loud and anxiety-crashing ending of "Christ Alive My Toe Dammit Hurts", or the bombastic album opener "Shouldn't Have A Leg Hole But I Do".

"And I Smoke" is ridiculously catchy. It's also full of lovable chaos. There's just so much going on in this song that you can't help but listen in awe as its crazed riffs race across the atmosphere, recalling Dogleg's brilliant "Melee" in the process. At the same time, the band is also able to slow it down to more pop punk-ish/emo material, such as "No Shoes In The Coffee Shop (Or Socks)". It's balladic and soothing, yet contains a thick emotional charge that makes the song feel energetic in its own right.

"Why Would I Watch" encapsulates the same confined and volatile energy as "You'll Be Fine" did, only with a crispier production. Here, the rough edges have been kept purposefully edgy and sharp, because otherwise, their fiery expression would feel far less incendiary than it does right now. No wonder the band has experienced a meteoric rise to stardom when they keep consistently churning out new emo staples like those on this record. As such, Hot Mulligan is one of the most exciting bands this genre has seen since The Wonder Years took it by storm quite some years back.

Download: And I Smoke, Shouldn't Have A Leg Hole But I Do, It's A Family Movie She Hates Her Dad, Gasns Media Retro Games, Shhhh! Golf Is On
For the fans of: Dogleg, Knuckle Puck, Free Throw, Tiny Moving Parts, The Hotelier, The Wonder Years
Listen: Facebook

Release date 12.05.2023
Wax Bodega