In an online interview in his hometown of Denver, Kissing Party's singer guitarist Gregg Dolan says of The Hate Album : "People inevitably say it's twee or it sounds like Belle And Sebastian. Fuck! It's not supposed to".
This suggests he would like listeners to take the album title more seriously - as a statement of intent, perhaps. Presumably the title was designed to tell us all that the band are no strangers to the fuzzy end of the lollipop but, if they really wanted to distance themselves from cute pop , they shouldn't write such darn catchy tunes. Fourteen of them to be precise (not counting the hidden one), and not one of them spelling H-A-T-E.
In the five piece band, Dolan shares the vocal duties with Dierdre Sage. Dolan does sour and sullen while Sage does sweet and sassy. Shane, Joe and Lee do the other bits.
It's not all happy, happy - they do have their shitty days (see titles like This Disgusting Morning or I Just Want To Get Out Of This Body) but the response to this is more like a bemused disaffection rather than a rage against the machine. The angst and buzz of being young and fancy free wins the day and finds a perfect expression in their (mostly) 2 minute blasts of feel good jangly pop.
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In this context, a track called The Homecoming which lasts 2 minutes 54 seconds assumes positively epic proportions . It also happens to be the best track so maybe they should take the courage to be this expansive more often.
Melania Reprise - is the nearest to a dark tune, like a slo-mo Jesus And Mary Chain
but the upbeat King Graves Rd quickly follows keeps the mood perky.
I like this album a lot - it's their third and they are clearly getting good at what they do. Nothing fancy, just sharp snappy songs that are not as easy to pull off as they make it sound. I'm sure it will appeal to fans of retro pop everywhere including all girl surf punk bands like Best Coast, Vivian Girls.
Just don't call them twee.
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