Wednesday 27 July 2011
Den of love
There was almost a two-tear gap between Hooded Fang‘s first EP and their debut LP (2010′s Album), but they’ve certainly picked up the pace prepping album two. Less than 12 months from Album‘s debut comes Tosta Mista, a record that would be indistinguishable from its predecessor if it weren’t for the sharp melodies and head Fang Daniel Lee’s smart lyrics.
The polished indie pop sounds of Album have been replaced with a dirtier, edgier garage-rock production that bristles with rowdy, wild fun. They make the melody-laden “Clap”, “ESP” and “Jubb” sound like kids’ stuff, song’s they could have written in their sleep. “Vacationation” snaps along at such a frenetic pace it’ll leave you winded. “Den of Love” is the perfect soundtrack for blossoming romance at the high school dance circa 1959. The song is home to one of my favourite lyrics on the record: “How much does it cost to get in?” asks a love-lorn Lee, “Is a thousand tears enough?/Cuz I got a woman who I need to get next to/or I will surely die”. You can imagine a thousand hearts swooning in the moment.
It all amounts to shock and awe: shock in the sense that the wall-of-surf-pop-sound on Tosta Mista is the last thing most people would have expected from Hooded Fang, and awe that they make it such a natural progression from where Album left off. The party is over far too soon: Tosta Mista is only 23 minutes long, and three of the album’s 10 tracks are brief 1.2 minute interludes. Still, the seven remaining full songs cram in more than enough summer-tastic excitement to make up for the brevity of the whole.
Tosta Mista is available now from Hooded Fang themselves: download it from their Bandcamp page or iTunes. Now!
MP3: Hooded Fang “ESP”
MP3: Hooded Fang “Den of Love”
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 27th, 2011 at 8:35 am and is filed under MP3, QBiM SPiNS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
