Squirrel Nut Zippers – Hot
welcome folks! after a delay for the holiday weekend, we’re continuing our discography review of Squirrel Nut Zippers with their 1996 record, Hot!
the opening track here, Got My Own Thing Now, is a lot of fun. really upbeat vibes, and some fun swing puns to kick things off. the horn line in the intro for Put a Lid on It reminds me a bit of Hadestown, haha. neat track! Memphis Exorcism is an instrumental track – doing a lot of fun big brassy stuff here. Twilight goes for a more island ballad-y vibe. i’m not a huge fan. It Aint You is a phenomenal metatextual joke, with the vocalist asking “is it you?” and not getting an answer in the track itself. but we know. very pleasant track. Prince Nez is a pretty good joke too – the lines about making things clearer and closer are pretty good for a song that’s suggestive of a name of eyewear, haha. okay listening to Hell i realized where i knew this song from: it’s one of the songs Streetlight Manifesto covered in their 99 Songs of the Revolution: Vol 1. this version has quite a bit of charm and i’m still a fan, but i’ll be honest here and say i prefer the cover, haha. Meant to Be is a more romantic song, and it’s pretty sweet. Bad Businessman immediately picks up the pace again for a breakneck track. huge fan of Bad Businessman, ngl. Flight of the Passing Fancy is another instrumental track, and yknow this one slaps too. Blue Angel’s a nice sultry track – the vocals from Katharine Whalen here are fantastic. The Interlocutor closes out the tracklist, and this feels like it should be playing over an old silent movie, haha. pretty good, and a nice way to close the record!
faves – Got My Own Thing Now, Hell, Bad Businessman, Flight of the Passing Fancy
dislikes –
something i found out after my initial listens of this record is that they recorded the tracks here on a single mic – an effect i felt but wouldn’t have been able to point out. there’s an interesting quality to the way you can hear the physical space between the instruments. i think i felt it most in the percussion section, but once you’re listening for it it’s pretty neat.
that being said, another extremely fun record! lotta humor here, fun variety in songs, and i def felt like the sequencing was a little less… obvious? on this record. great performances, both vocally and instrumentally, and while there were a few rougher points i had a really good time here.
Hot – 8/10
the next release is technically their rarities EP, Sold Out!, but i am going to try to cover it with the next full record, Perennial Favorites. that may change by the time next week rolls around, but we’ll see!
the previous is the beginning: The Inevitable Squirrel Nut Zippers | next: Perennial Favorites
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