ALBUM REVIEW: POWER – Illuminati Hotties

Indie outfit ILLUMINATI HOTTIES are back and this time they are bringing with them their new album POWER, their first release since 2021’s Let Me Do One More. If you’re after some easy going indie tunes that feel like they’re straight from the 1990s then this album is definitely for you. If you’re more of a casual fan, then maybe a handful of these tracks will appeal to you. Whilst POWER is an easy going album, it does very little with its style and gets slightly tiresome throughout the listen. 

Frustratingly, the album itself does open very strongly. Can’t Be Still has an infectious riff and a set of lyrics that will be rolling around your head long after listening to it. It’s a light-hearted track that you just wish there was more of through the record. Next track I Would Like, Still Love You is once again a fun track but you can’t help but feel like the song itself is an extension of Can’t Be Still as both are very similar in how they sound which sets an unfortunate precedent for the rest of the record. Fourth track Rot slows things down a little and almost dares to be a little different but isn’t quite as adventurous as you’d like it to be. However, the vocals throughout have a nice nature about them that make you feel relaxed whilst listening. 

Halfway through listening however, you get to The L. This is where the album does actually start to get a little interesting, putting the poppy sound in the background and bringing a fun grunge feel to the record with a great riff that really grabs your attention throughout, complimenting the soft vocals perfectly which results in a wonderful crescendo toward the end of the track. The grungy goodness resurfaces on Didn’t (feat. CAVETOWN) a couple of tracks further on too; it’s not a breathtaking departure in sound but the heavier guitars bring a bit of gravitas to the album and are definitely an homage to 90s bands like HOLE and NIRVANA. With a fun chorus to boot, this song in particular will be a great live if you ever see them. Annoyingly, everything goes back to normal with You Are Not Who You Were, which abandons the grungy aspect and returns to the safety of the sound of what came earlier in the album. 

What’s The Fuzz is another track that includes a heavier sound and is a genuinely fun song as it powers through its impressive and distorted riffs and thunderous drums – you’d easily be forgiven for thinking this song was from a completely different album. At the forefront are fun and snarky sounding lyrics that give the song a bit of a punk/post-punk edge to it. It leaves you thinking that this album could have been so much more if it had decided what style it truly wanted to be. After delivering a few interesting moments, POWER once again resorts back to more of the same towards the end of the record. You’d assume the title track would have a bit more chutzpah to it with it being the penultimate track, but it isn’t particularly distinguishable from many other songs on this album. Everything Changes brings POWER to a close with a short acoustic number that once again doesn’t have much to offer, rounding out the album without much fanfare. 

POWER is quite the frustrating album to listen to. You could argue that it would have benefitted massively if it was just an EP rather than an LP because when this album actually gets going, it can be a lot of fun – there just isn’t enough of it. The heavier/grungier tunes in particular are definitely this album’s strong point that gives it a bit of bite, but when it falls back into the safety of the more pop-based songs throughout the record that bite unfortunately turns into more of a nibble.

Rating: 6/10

POWER is set for release on August 23rd via Hopeless Records.

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