There was a time, around the start of this millennium, when rock music got its act together and offered something new and refreshing, something satisfying and so much more than the usual style over substance that the genre is known for. Bands like The Strokes, The Killers and Arctic Monkeys arrived on the scene and started delivering music woven from both style and substance. Listening to “America’s Favourite Pastime” makes you think this could be the opening sonic salvos being fired for another wave of such greatness.
And, of course, the secret to such success was that those bands were more than just rock acts. Sure, the music kicked some arse, but it was also forged of indie coolness and no small amount of pop accessibility too. And this blend of groove and grit, muscle and melody, always made the music so irresistible and roundly popular. and everything great about that era and those bands is found running through Pity Party.
“Right Back Where I Was” is a short, sharp, and shockingly infectious song, certainly a candidate for that shortlist entitled “perfect, 3-minute pop song.” “Melissa” is one of those fist-in-the-air anthems that will have you joining in the hey-heys and ooh-oohs every time they come around, and “Stone’s Throw” is crunchy and staccato, groovy and, quite frankly, great.
If the Pity Party of the title is an attempt to capture the feeling of ricocheting between the emotional extremes of life, between the self-pitying lows and the party highs, then sonically, the songs here force that message home perfectly.
It is also fair to say that, given the quality of the songs found here, if you told any unsuspecting music fan that this was actually Hotel Mira’s greatest hits album, I’m sure few would argue otherwise.
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