EPITAPH “A Flight and A Crash”
As I consider Epitaph to be a pretty solid bellweather of talent in the punk rock world (minus GUTTERMOUTH), I really wasn’t all that surprised that HWM had landed a deal with them. After releasing four full lengths on three different labels, this seemed like the next natural step, paralleling the group’s growth in popularity. “A Flight and a Crash,” blows away their past two albums by far, and in respect to their earliest material, shows how much these guys have grown as musicians. The gritty punk feeling shrouded in melodic tunage is still in full effect, but the production and song development seems much stronger this time out – with much praise going to the dazzling work of producer, Brian McTernan. HOT WATER MUSIC works on me in mysterious ways. While I never quite get “excited,” while listening to one of their albums, I’ll find myself humming bass lines or singing choruses to a variety of songs on a trigger’s notice. The music gets under the skin, and it harbors there on the edge of familarity. That’s another thing about “A Flight and a Crash,” that keeps it in a league far above from the shelf of being “just another release.” From the moment the first note is hit, this band’s highly identifiable sound seems like a blanket you could slip under. The self titled track starts this off, and it’s one of the speedier, rougher tunes they’ve done in quite some time. “Paper Thin,” the third song has an alternative drum beat to it that throws you for a loop on the first listen, an obvious expansion of this band’s style. The best songs to me though come straight in the middle. I freaking love song five, “Swinger,” as it has a very relaxed, almost dub style guitar that accompanies a beautiful rolling bass line. Man, that song should get the crowd dancing in a second. “Sunday Suit,” features the strongest sounding guitar track on the disc as the band for the most part gets farther away from a chunkier guitar sound (AVAIL) to what JAWBREAKER did towards the end of their career. And just to complete the musical proficiency, the HWM guys throw in the extremely emotional, acoustic, keyboard laden tune, “She Takes It so Well.” Hardly one dimensional, that is for certain. As with previous works, the artwork is done by none other than Scott Sinclair, and it looks fabulous (although the HWM logo is about the size of a dime on the front cover). Mr. McTernan can turn any decent band into gold, and since HWM was already well developed, the sound quality is finally to the level that HWM deserved. Although I feel the bass stands out really strong in the mix, overall, the sound is well balanced. This sounds miles better than “No Division,” did. Anyway, I love HOT WATER MUSIC and recommend them to anyone willing to take a listen. They aren’t cookie cutter, formulaic, or generic in any sense, and that’s what makes it so dang cool.
Epitaph
