Hot Milk - ‘A CALL TO THE VOID’ review
Hot Milk by Frank Fieber
After building a mountain of hype from three back-to-back and self-produced EPs, Manchester’s tireless Hot Milk have released one of the most anticipated debut albums of the year, A CALL TO THE VOID.
An alt pop melting pot, Hot Milk has combined elements of pop punk, nu metal, grime, electronicore, and pretty much everything in between, together into their own unique formula to record a body of work that somehow still managed to capture the magic of their amped live experience.
Taken from the English translation of the French phrase “l'appel du vide”, referring to the brain's trick of spotting opportunities to die, A CALL TO THE VOID navigates a fine line between humour and seriousness, exuding a quality akin to optimistic nihilism. Rather than simply uncovering brightness within darkness, they chuckle, almost as a necessity, to avoid shedding tears.
Opening with an overture in the shape of “WELCOME TO THE…”, which feels like Hot Milk channelling My Chemical Romance at their pompous best, the album assaults us with a trio of rave-tinged bangers in the shape of “HORROW SHOW”, “BLOODSTREAM”, and “PARTY ON MY DEATHBED”. If there’s a better introduction to everything that Hot Milk are, I can’t think of one. This trio of tracks are going to be a staple of alt party playlists for years to come.
Out of these, the anthemic “BLOODSTREAM” stands out. The song was written in its entirety in a moment of creative clarity in the early hours of a Los Angeles recording session. Despite the anthemic nature of the song, it lyrically tackles heavy issues, mirroring the emotions tied to unhealthy obsession, chasing temporary excitement, and the self-criticism that follows.
The aforementioned fine line between humour and serious subject matter generally works well. For example, at the end of “MIGRAINE” we get a snippet of spoken audio of Mee laughing about a headache to end a wildly energetic song, before descending into the albums most vulnerable track “Breathing Underwater”. But it’s the spoken clip at the end of the humorous “ALICE COOPER’S POOL HOUSE” that hits a little too close for comfort for this writer at comment of dumping teenager bodies anywhere. But humour is subjective and I could totally miss the point.
But as the album progresses, swagger is replaced by open honesty. The latest released single, “BREATHING UNDERWATER,” best exemplifies this through an outpouring of emotion where we find the band at their most vulnerable. Under the mix of stirring vocal harmonies we find a track that feels like the sound of breaking your own heart. This was the first song written for A CALL TO THE VOID and Mee describes it as the beating heart of the record, saying of the track:
“We needed to write this song as a cry to the outside world. BREATHING UNDERWATER is the beating heart and defining song off our debut album, it was written first and set off a chain reaction that moulded the feeling of A CALL TO THE VOID.”
Underlining the pop punk credentials in Hot Milk’s sound, the penultimate track “AMPHETAMINE” features Julian Comeau of Loveless. The track stands as an exemplar of what Hot Milk does best: merging a rave inspired an electronicore base with driving guitars and pop punk infused vocals. “AMPHETAMINE” launches us to one last dance-a-long track before the album ends on ballad “FORGET ME NOT” with its ending refrain of “there's a call to a void”.
Hot Milk have taken the most catchy parts of their alt forebears and have created a fresh alt pop sound. This album is designed to be pumped at full volume. It’s clear that A CALL TO THE VOID is just the beginning of bigger things for Hot Milk. We’re excited to see what comes next and until then, join us in partying it up to Hot Milk’s debut album.
A CALL TO THE VOID is out now via Music For Nations on your favourite platform.
