Kris Pugh
Let’s be honest: they’re great at it. A decade of satire, relatable lyricisms and bop choruses has made them one of emo’s great success stories of the last 10 years. The quintet have never taken themselves too seriously (a staple of the contemporary genre they find themselves in) and thus, you’d expect The Sound A Body Makes When It’s Still to follow the same tact. In some ways, your assumptions would be correct.
When you mix the earnest nature of the album title with the solemn, almost morose tones of opener ‘Moving to Bed Bug Island’ you’re left wondering exactly what type of step this is about to be. Let’s not mix our words: the delicate nature of the track blends well with Tades’ lush vocal tones, but it undeniably raises the question of just how seriously Hot Mulligan are about to take this next 45 minutes, as well as the following effect.
What follows throughout the record is almost the ideal answer to the aforementioned question. While Hot Mulligan have clearly grown as songwriters, they know what bought them to the dance. ‘Mix Master Wade On The Beat’ spotlights the songwriting knack of guitarists Chris Freeman and Ryan Malisci as they soundtrack Tades’ eschewed pain and discomfort with a sumptuous backdrop of melancholic tonality. A vocal refrain of “I don’t know better” displays vocal vulnerability unlike we’ve heard from the band before, but the five piece sound right at home.
Similarly, ‘Slumdog Scungillionaire’ looks past the bounce and adolescence that Hot Mulligan have previously pursued in the pursuit of something closer to the skin. Their societal woe and anger has never been as apparent as the climax of the track offers a quite visceral 30 seconds of pinched guitar lines and screams. It works as well for the emo crew as writing songs about being barefoot in a coffee shop. Like all great records though, The Sound A Body Makes When It’s Still provides balance. The band’s whimsical, jovial nature is in full swing on the infectious ‘Bon Jonah’ and ‘It Smells Like Fudge Axe In Here’. Both provide the heartwarming feeling that few can do better than Hot Mulligan: we’re not certain exactly what this track is discussing, but boy is this fun to listen to.
Most of the record holds on to what the five piece have always been great at, some of it hints at what they could become, but then there’s ‘Carbon Monoxide Hotel’ which symbiotically holds the two concepts together. It forces a smile onto your face as much as it gives you brooding instrumentation. The lyrical content is poignant, the songwriting matches it, the chorus ascends above them both. It’s a special moment for the band.
The Sound A Body Makes When It’s Still does a wonderful job at offering you whatever you could have wanted from the band at this point. Hoping they were still the same five people that are happy to goof off and write bangers? You got it. Hoping that as they progress through life, that would start to come through in their music? You got that too. All things considered, this record is a great case scenario for Hot Mulligan.
The Sound A Body Makes When It’s Still is out now Via Wax Bodega