Hot Rod Circuit

If It's Cool With You, It's Cool With Me (2000)

el_provocateur

If someone else described Hot Rod Circuit's music you might hear, "poppy" or "emo." Especially if you just got HRC's latest album, "Sorry About Tomorrow."

Or you might hear HRC's music compared to the Get Up Kids. But that's still not a fair comparison--since this album could easily rival anything TGUK ever recorded.

But this album, If It's Cool with You, It's Cool with Me, totally defies typical emo-pop-rock.

This CD is the most guitar-riff driven and ultimately the hardest (I dare say) pop album I've heard in awhile. You get the poppy hooks, heart-on-the-sleeve lyrics and real sing-along-melodies ("Radio Song," "Supersad," "Flight 89") that rings of today's HRC, but you also get the post-punkish roots of old HRC ("Versatility," "Smithsonian Liver," "Cool with Me"). Especially "Cool with Me." "Cool with Me" easily rips like any other hard-assed punk song I've heard all year.

The vocals aren't too bad here also, since the Anniversary's Adrianne Pope does some pretty decent back up singing.

I got my copy of this one used for $2.15, when someone else hocked it for pennies--Sucker!

So if you already got "Sorry About Tomorrow," you can't go wrong getting this--this easily tops that one.

Otherwise for everybody else, get this one and you'll hear the "rock" in the overly-stereotyped-and-classified "pop rock."

This album deserves my top rating for staying in my player for a few months now.