Hot Hot Heat Happiness Ltd. by: Matthew Bahr-Wright Tue:30-Oct-07 Label: Warner Year: 2007 WB rating 55 out of 100

For a quartet displaying the vibrancy and upbeat pop charm of Hot Hot Heat, Happiness Ltd. is a typically ideal title for their fourth studio LP. The content though, is anything but typical.

Despite the plethora of radio-friendly hits on Elevator, the band’s 2005 commercial breakthrough, their new offering attempts to combine a mix of the raw elements on Make up the Breakdown and an obvious desire to mature and expand their musical horizons. With this attempt, front man Steve Bays continues to dominate the band with his urgent vocals and sharp keyboard hooks.

Happiness opens with the title track, immediately highlighting the bands desire to forge into a new dimension. The track is a ballad, which progresses into a grandstand reprise of “It’s over now!” this section overshadows the lacking verses of the song. Despite the potential corniness, ‘Happiness’ had the makings of a great close to the album and its positioning at the start seems misguided. ‘Let Me In’, the records sophomore single, is somewhat of a return to HHH’s true form, a power-pop piece about the trials and tribulations of dealing with girls that simply beckons the listener to sing along – this combination of high energy and memorable melody are reaffirmed asthe band’s strong points.

The relationship theme so central to the work of Hot Hot Heat is again present in the heartfelt offering ‘Outta My Heart’, where Bays’ vocals communicate a convincing sense of emotion, but once again harbours pedestrian verses that only saved by the chorus and reprise. ‘My Best Friend’ provides one of the album’s highlights, incorporating a rock style intro, clever drums and claps before a catchy array of “Woah-oh oh-oh”s in the chorus, delivered exactly as you’d expect from power popsters.

Another quality offering is track eight, ‘Give Up?’ where we see a glimmer of the former HHH unpredictable and risk taking. This isn’t to say that one of the more exciting things to acts to come out of Canada have lost their touch, but have like many bands before them, altered a winning formula in pursuit of increased success.

The 11 tracks in total (with ‘5 Times Out Of 100’ being a re-release) appear like the sort of material that would have come from a rushed writing and recording process. Given the band took a good two years before unleashing this new record, this appears a harsh judgement to make, but is the unfortunate reality. In order to get back the edge that brought HHH into prominence in the first place, they really need to throw away whatever rulebook they’ve started reading from. All the things that made them so unique in the first place, the loose song structure, the eccentricity of the band and funky danceable tunes have sadly faded for a more generic sound.

Given the shining lights Happiness does possess, not to mention HHH’s stellar live performances, I’m not writing off these Maple Leafers just yet. But just in case they plan to continue down the path of future Happiness, it could be a sad ending to a band and another case of lost potential.