Hot Water Music - 'Caution' (Epitaph)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Sometime in the not too distant past, somebody invented a genre, and called it 'Emo'. We listened, and heard that it was good. Yes, the music it attempted to categorise had existed happily without a silly name for fifteen years or so before some hack came along with a handy tag, but it seemed finally this generation had something it could call its own. 'Caution' combines all the best bits of said-genre. Although still nobody strictly knows what Emo is exactly, this will do as a handy introduction.
Despite this being their seventh full-length studio release, this may also be many people in Britain's introduction to Hot Water Music themselves. So, let's set the scene: the band sit happily on a sturdy fence that separates the gardens of Fugazi and, erm, Van Halen, enjoyed a high-profile spot living 'like Carnies' on the Vans Warped tour this year, and possess an impossible knack for simply writing killer songs. Excited yet?
As it happens, the first seven tracks of the act's latest album harbour choruses as infectious as a strangely joyous plague. Opener 'Remedy' is typical of their huge, hard-hitting sound, boisterous but never violent, comparable at times to the similarly named Hot Rod Circuit or the Get Up Kids. Over the course of the album, variation certainly isn't a main concern, but, happily, the hooks are so sublime that it matters little that each song could have quite easily contained every chorus on the entire album. In fact, the truly excellent 'Trusty Chords' makes fun of this very fact - summing up the band perfectly with the line 'I hate this place, but I love these chords'. These chords, it seems, love them too, a love-affair they play out on every track - but, if the hat fits...
And this is one mighty comfortable hat. At first, having song after song of relentless melodic hardcore seems slightly foolish as the individual tunes occasionally become too intertwined, but once each track is allowed to settle down inside a comfortable listener's skull it all begins to make perfect sense. They're loud and confrontational, but - whisper it quietly - at heart, these are all luminously crafted pop songs.
The only criticism that could be levelled at such a fine effort is that the production, provided by Brian McTernan (whose previous credits include The Promise Ring & Texas Is The Reason) is uncharacteristically plush, perhaps removing an edge that may have made this album a classic, but sufficiently assuring that 'Caution' will almost definitely become Hot Water Music's most successful effort since their 1994 inception.
There we have it, then - officially, HWM sound like the kind of group you could obsess over. And it appears that the band themselves have done the very same over 'Caution', meaning that the fruits of their labour are delicious... Huh - kinda makes you wonder why you didn't pay attention sooner, doesn't it?
Artists in this article: Hot Water Music
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