ALBUM REVIEW: Corporation P.O.P – Hot Milk
Two years on from their excellent debut album; A Call To The Void, it is nice to welcome Manchester rockers HOT MILK back into the musical fray with a scintillating sophomore album, Corporation P.O.P. A thrilling social commentary of an album that feels all too relevant in the world today as it continues to slip into the void. Maybe this is something the band predicted with the title of their previous album? This time round they have upped their game massively both in their sound and production. CORPORATION P.O.P takes those foundations laid by A Call To The Void and builds on them incredibly for an album full to the brim of heavy bangers with a mancunian snarl.
Despite it’s title, this album is far from pop. Opening track (How Do I) Make The Devil Fall Asleep works as a wonderful prologue in a calm before the storm sort of way. The brooding nature bubbles and boils with monstrous guitar riffs that pound your eardrums until it reaches fever pitch, showing that HOT MILK are back and they mean business. Launching us into the album proper is the wonderful track INSUBORDINATE INGERLAND, which starts off with a train announcement saying the “next station is Manchester airport”, anyone whose ever got on that train will be filled with dread. A sort of love letter, this track follows frontwoman Han Mee who moved to America before moving back to her beloved Manchester. Whilst she always feels at home in England, the song details her apparent issues about being from England. It may seem like a nice country to those from the outside, however from this song, Mee captures the frustrations of being here perfectly with fun football licks on the guitar tackling the differences between the higher and lower classes.
The American Machine is another burning commentary on the world. Taking aim at our pals across the Atlantic, this song doesn’t hold back one bit. Looking at how politically, America goes one step forward and seemingly about a million steps back, the track itself handles the hypocrisies of America well and bites with plenty of venom. “This shit renews for four seasons, it’s always rinse and repeat are you bored of this” makes for dour listening as it makes the nature what America is becoming hit home after being on our screens for so long. Hearing the lyric “bombs away” hits home making you wish it was foresight but it’s just the nature of the USA we’ve gotten so used to. This song goes hand in hand well with Hell Is On The Way, an annoying funky track that tackles such a heavy topic as it tells us to “hold your breath and enjoy what we have left”. Swallow This is an absolute barnstormer of a track. Whilst it is not on the noise, the sentiment rings true as it borrows themes from The Matrix, turning it on its head and tackling ignorance and misinformation that makes people ignore true issues and focus on aspects of the world that don’t matter as opposed to issues that you should do.
After a short interlude, we are treated to the one two punch of Chase The Dragon and 90 Seconds To Midnight. The prior has a riff that starts off at 100mph and does very little to stop, the brooding nature returns as it tackles themes of chasing the thrill of thrills that aren’t great in nature. The former looking at the imminent end of the world, cheery right? Sunburn From Your Bible is a fun track about blindly following a lifestyle that makes you numb and disassociate from the world, once again ignoring true problems to focus on something that may or may not exist, then it’s too late at the moment you realise you’ve been duped. Riffs aplenty and mosh pits will ensure when seen live. Warehouse Salvation is a welcome change on the album, employing a more electronic/dance beat to it that sticks in your head for a while after hearing it.
On the final run on the album, the electronic beats stick around with Payment of Pain keeping up this trend as it turns the album on its head ever so slightly rather than just sticking with one style from beginning to end. Penultimate track Asphyxiate is a decent track as it aims high with it’s stadium sized feel, however it does feel a tad generic after a plethora of consistently great tunes throughout Corporation P.O.P. Sympathy Symphony plays out the album on a more subtle style than what we’ve had, with huge beats yet a nice string section it brings the album to a close on quite an emotional level before it builds up to a giant ending with chugging guitars signalling a victorious end to Corporation P.O.P and propelling HOT MILK onto bigger and better things.
Corporation P.O.P is a wonderful installment to the HOT MILK discography. Whilst keeping the ethos of HOT MILK intact, you can see they have progressed sonically and all for the better. Everything about this album feels tight, concise and meticulously thought out. Both Mee and Shaw are on the form of their lives on vocals, giving HOT MILK a great name in the alternative scene in Manchester which has so often been clogged up in indie rock, maybe it’s time some heavy bands got a look in at Mancunian culture!
Rating: 8/10
Corporation P.O.P is our now via Music For Nations.
For more information on HOT MILK like their official page on Facebook.