Hot Hot Heat

The inventive Steve Bays yelps in a faux British accent through 14 tight and spirited tracks in 37 minutes. Luckily, he's borrowed more from Blur than Damon Albarn's dodgy Steve Harley impression, and Elevator showcases plenty of pop cleverness. A solid step forward for the Vancouver foursome.

Less sexy than Franz Ferdinand and less mysterious than the Killers, Hot Hot Heat seem like
the odd men out among the current crop of young New Wavers. But their tenaciously
peppy songs and their not terribly cool singer -- headlong yelper Steve Bays -- give this
Canadian quartet a certain unpretentious appeal. Elevator, Hot Hot Heat's third album,
contains some of the finest pure pop-rock songs of the year so far; it's a fourtee... More >

Pop satire, its targets obvious but left wriggling in a discomfort they deserve ("Jingle Jangle," "Soldier in a Box"). (Grade - **)