Hot Gossip - You Look Faster When You Are Young Album Review

Review of Hot Gossip's album You Look Faster When You Are Young

Cast your mind back to oh, 2003ish, and you may remember that we were surfing a huge (new) wave of noisy indie pop. Okgo, Hot Hot Heat et al. But such brilliance has a sadly limited shelf life: the bands came and went , checking into the also-ran graveyard of pop as quick as you can say 'bandages'. It's a shame and all that, but this is 2009 and there's a hole inside us all that needs filling with something sugary. So step forward Hot Gossip, the Milanese trio who have returned with their second album and- good news pop fans- it's as contagious as swine flu.

It's probably already been inferred that Hot Gossip aren't reinventing the wheel here. They're touting themselves as 'rock and roll' but in reality they have their feet firmly planted in the land of indie pop. There's no genre bending but instead, Hot Gossip are just good at what they do. 'At Night' is a quirky enough to hold its own as a single but in fact, most of these tracks are made to be radio friendly unit shifters. 'You Better Know' is one of those pop songs that hooks you in and takes you with it, so willingly or unwillingly you'll be singing along by the end. They've clearly pulled out all the stops with the production - which is very good - and all the 'ooohs' and 'ahhs' are so polished they slide around on the rhythms effortlessly.

You Look Faster When You Are Young keeps things light and uncomplicated. It is fun, but it would be silly to be in raptures about something this disposable. Inevitably albums like will lose their lustre over time and it lacks that originality that would raise it above good to great. There will probably be a new set of boys with guitars waiting to overtake them in 6 months time, but never mind, eh? Let's hope they know their way around a melody like this lot.

Natalie Kaye