- Genre: indie / indie rock / indie pop
- Sounds like: Muse, All-American Rejects
- Home: Washington, DC
- Hotspur
Many bands struggle with a debut album. From what may have been an impressive four or five song collection on an EP now needs to fill an album with at least ten or more tracks. This is where many debuts fail, with an equal collection of fillers as there are bona-fide album tracks. Somehow, Hotspur have managed to pull it off.
Produced by Chris Grainger and Russ Long (who have worked with the likes of Wilco, Switchfoot and Dropping Daylight), Beta is the full-length debut from this Washington-based band (their self-titled EP was released in 2005). With a heady mix of catchy choruses combining with strong musicianship, this is an album that can stand up next to releases from the likes of current darlings Killers and Fall Out Boy.
INDIE MEETS FUNK
Opening track Young And Reckless is a sweeping tune, led by thumping bass from Coop Cooper. With cavernous drumming supporting this from Scott Robinson, it's the type of song that mixes style to great effect, from indie to funk with rock and pop thrown in. Vocalist and guitarist Joel Mach has a singing style perfectly suited to the fare on offer here, able to move between soft and harsh in a heartbeat. Bringing the sound of Hotspur to completion is keyboardist Dave Trichter, and it's these keyboards that lend Hotspur a sound not too dissimilar to British indie rock band Muse.
This is continued with second track She's Got To Go. With a hook in the vein of In The Shadows by The Rasmus, it's another showcase for Hotspur to show off their variations in style. Never really sticking to one particular sound, it's an approach that should pay dividends for this four-piece outfit.
If there is one thing that slightly lets down Beta, it's for some tracks to sound similar to songs already recorded by other artists. An example of this is Have You Seen This Girl, which sounds very much like a faster version of Hoobastank's classic power ballad The Reason (even down to the piano chords and drum intro). With the strength of the songs that Hotspur already possess on the rest of the album, it's the only disappointment on an otherwise impressive debut.
HOTSPUR ON THE RISE
However, this is a relatively minor quibble. When you have songs like Skydive, with its almost Britpop-like structure attached to power chords, and Get Me Outta Here, with its sheer feel-good factor running alongside an all-out indie dance track, it just makes comparisons with Have You Seen This Girl all the more audible.
Currently on an intensive promotional tour across the US, Hotspur are beginning to gather pace, with commercial acceptance almost becoming a given. With appearances at the lauded SxSW festival, not to mention various MTV soundtracks, and an album as impressive as it is fresh, expect to hear the name Hotspur more and more over the coming months.
