Hot Springs - Volcano

Hot Springs
Volcano
Aquarius Records
Grade: A-

Perhaps it’s my myopic musical viewpoint, but a couple of months back it seemed that the indie press were wetting their pants to Montreal’s Hot Springs. And thus, expectations were high for the ten-track Volcano. Hot Springs tackle their sound with the pure aggression of wolves on dance punk prey – helped to an absurd degree by the belting vocals of Giselle Webber. Webber’s Joplin-meets-Ditto vocal intensity carries Hot Springs through any tough moments and imprints their sound onto your brain. To find the full effect of the richness of Hot Springs a headphone listen is necessary – without you’ll miss the aching, depth, and range of Webber’s vocals, like how they crackle on “Fog and the Horn.” “Fog and the Horn” also establishes that Hot Springs aren’t a one-trick pony of sound – where here the tempo slows to a crawl on the slithery ballad. Hot Springs are catchy but not to such a degree that you lose yourself in them, which is both good and bad. You want to lose yourself, get chills, and find joy from hitting repeat over and over from absurdly catchy numbers. But also these songs may overshadow an otherwise stellar record. For the most part I find the ‘it’ maker indie music sites to be off the mark too many times for anyone’s good, but they might actually be onto something with Hot Springs.