Hotline TNT – Cartwheel (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Hotline TNT – Cartwheel (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 33:06 minutes | 399 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock, Shoegaze
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Third Man Records

Will Anderson believes in true love—as both concept and catalyst, aspiration and inspiration. During his 34 years, the Hotline TNT founder and architect has found such love perhaps half-a-dozen times. Each instance has prompted some enormous swing of commitment, like a cross-country move or simply being honest about his budding attraction. It is a hopeful and vulnerable way to exist, a way to ensure maximum bruising during the fall of the breakup. And so far for Anderson, that is how it has always ended, whether the air has slowly seeped out of some once-full balloon or whether it has simply popped, those expanded feelings expelled in an instant. This tension is the brain, blood, and beating heart of Cartwheel, Hotline TNT’s second LP and an endlessly romantic testament to reaching for something that slips forever out of grasp. The byproduct of Anderson’s decades-long quest to pin down the surging sound long in his head, Hotline TNT has come to notice in the last four years through loose association with a feverish surge of shoegaze revivalism. And Hotline TNT indeed trucks in the touchstones you might expect: skywriting guitars that bathe in fluorescent hazes of distortion, blown-out drums that pound as though they’re trying to escape a concrete box, and honeyed vocals that try to rise above the chaotic mess in true-to-life mimesis.

Cartwheel is thrilling, alive and so much cleaner, brighter—more high-fidelity—than the Brooklyn (by way of Minneapolis by way of Vancouver) shoegaze band Hotline TNT’s previous extremely lo-fi releases.” It’s transforming from a bedroom activity to a career,” singer-songwriter Will Anderson (formerly of Weed) told NME of Hotline TNT’s first album on Third Man Records. “That’s where we’re at right now.” The “we,” though, is still just Anderson plus engineers/co-producers Ian Teeple (Sn​õ​õper) and Aron Kobayashi Ritch this time. (Live, the lineup includes two more guitarists and a drummer.) “Protocol” is big in the way of My Bloody Valentine and early Lush, leaving you satisfied with the feeling of being completely full. It’s about, Anderson has said, occasionally taking the blame in a relationship even if it’s not fair: “Rip my pain off/ Make me do somersaults/ Break protocol,” he sings in his sweet voice before the whole thing ends in vibrant feedback. Anderson is prone to describing his emotions through stomach-churning physical feats, like somersaults and cartwheels, as on “I Thought You’d Change” (“Cartwheel/ We’re riding on our heels/ No deal/ A kiss would make it real”), which is about wanting a friendship to turn into something more and sounds like Stone Roses covering a Teenage Fanclub song. And that’s the thing: There is so much lovely melody here, on songs like vibrating “BMX,” with its harmonic layers; the giddy pop explosion of “Out of Town”; and even the slow-moving, luxuriant drone of “Maxine.” “I Know You” opens with an ebb and flow of crashing guitar waves, but is really still a folk ballad. Many of the songs are short but complete sketches, clocking in at under three minutes—but that’s all it takes for Anderson to execute a TKO. “Son In Law” is almost punishing in its opening heaviness before it mellows. Ride-like “Beauty Filter” shimmers and glimmers, with crashing drums punctuating the end of Anderson’s lines. Excellent “History Channel” boasts muscular guitar that sounds as if it was sent through time and came home covered in shaggy fuzz; it’s a pop song that practically teems with life. And “Stump” is a surprise and delight: a buoyant, cleaner-lined sunshine jangle with 1950s dream-angel vocals. – Shelly Ridenour

Tracklist:
1. Hotline TNT – Protocol (04:12)
2. Hotline TNT – I Thought You’d Change (02:51)
3. Hotline TNT – Beauty Filter (02:07)
4. Hotline TNT – History Channel (02:43)
5. Hotline TNT – I Know You (02:42)
6. Hotline TNT – Son In Law (02:40)
7. Hotline TNT – Out of Town (02:15)
8. Hotline TNT – Maxine (01:51)
9. Hotline TNT – That Was My Life (02:11)
10. Hotline TNT – Spot Me 100 (03:06)
11. Hotline TNT – BMX (03:41)
12. Hotline TNT – Stump (02:42)

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