Hot Milk Releases “The King and Queen of Gasoline”
ALBUM COVER: @george.creates & @harleywrecks
Emo power-pop duo from Manchester, England, Hot Milk, released their latest EP known as The King and Queen of Gasoline on August 5, 2022. Following their 2021 heavy-hitter EP, 'I Just Wanna Know What Happens When I'm Dead,’ the epic saga is filled with themes of betrayal, shame, and loneliness. With a common ritual of daring lyrics paired with upbeat crashing waves of distortion, their new release takes the shape of an empathetic, area thriller.
Known for their sad songs with happy melodies, Hot Milk levels the game with experimental colors and styles that competing acts in their overall genre always miss, or never consider. If ketchup and ice cream could ever work in the same dish, Hot Milk could throw together the perfect recipe.
Since their breakthrough single in 2019, “Candy Coated Lies," the group broke glass ceilings stealing the attention of broad audiences and taste-makers with their authenticity, high energy, and spirit across physical and digital spectrums. Their unforgettable melodies and well-rounded genre fusion brought them from sketching song ideas between shifts to touring with Paperweight, The Maine, State Champs, and Blackbear only 2 years later.
‘The King and Queen of Gasoline’ sets the stage with an ambiance indwelled by a dirty piano interlude melting your surroundings. The introduction fills your reality, enchanting listeners with their soundscaping charisma. The harmonic vibration of Mee’s chant, “Told we're nothing and we're no good, an alien since childhood” then rises to a smiling drum roll that cycles into an amplified guitar phrase. The famous ‘sad songs with happy melodies’ ingredient. This song is a pop-punk hug twisting you from the inside out. As a bouncy, head-nodding collection of retro aesthetics, the song is daringly, honest, and cinematic. The lyrics lift your grief brick by brick, validating your repentance from the strict, toxic childhood you grew up in. This one is thick as honey and pulls you deep into the trenches of it.
‘Teenage Runaways’ opens with a staining vintage bass filling your ears. Pulsating drum kicks build and take you to an amphitheater of voices and heartbeats. The first verse goes by quick - just like your teenage years when you look back. Hearts retrograde at the relating line, ‘Are you uncomfortable?'Cause I'm dysfunctional? Wincing at ‘Wash out my dirty fucking mouth, 'Cause I know I'll never make you proud.’ The composition of the sound and lyrics wraps you in an 80’s metal mosh-pit with sweaty nerves and ringing ears, making you wish you didn’t remember growing pains. It’s scary- accurate in reflecting on the situations and feelings a teenager endures when they don’t feel accepted, appreciated, loved, or understood. If there’s a branded metaphor representing the feeling of being misunderstood, it’s Hot Milk. The chorus is an adrenaline rush of melody glazed in rich harmonies. With subtle hip-hop elements, this piece is characterized by gnashing of teeth at the soul-shattering shrills in the bridge, “You left me for dead...again and again…”
‘I Fell in Love With Someone,’ feels intelligently distorted. The glittering rock n’ roll swoon of charcoal strings backsplashes Mee’s distant, high-gain voice ‘I fell in love with someone that I shouldn’t have.’ The word ‘have’ falls at the end of the line, bringing the feeling of lucrative acceptance in regret of a nauseating heartbreak. In a tragedy about the pain of loving someone that hurt you, the drums and guitars speak high volumes of regret and betrayal while their consistency communicates a reflective tone and desire to move forward. Indulging in post-traumatic anger, the chorus is a radiant flow of energy proclaiming “'Causе if I were you, I'd be running away. She is a girl with a temper and something to say. And her heart's not a toy, it's a hand grenade. They say that love is a war and you'll never be saved.”
‘Bad Influence’ leaves you restless. Your muscles scream, weep and ache - begging for relief. A rebellious and exciting disturbance you find that you can’t turn your ears away from.. With ‘villain of the story’ guitar licks, this 3-minute rebel breaks into a unique dissonance of the ’80s & modern metalcore familiarity, and a robust signature melody in the chorus. With throat-cutting lows and thrashing attitudes, the chorus sheers with ‘I'm just a bad influence. You want nothing to do with. Fuck all your friends, they don't know what the truth is.’ Every note is exciting and leaps with thrilling layers of anger. A Bible for a Badass.
‘The Secret to Saying Goodbye’ lays low at the beginning and then springs into an upbeat synth. The dance-minded verse is layered over drop-tuned guitar chugs that pan left and right. A song of frustration, doubt, and hurt, this track is breathtaking and aches with the desire for closure. The chorus clasps half of your heart in one hand and the second half in the other, breaking you in two with the slashing line, ‘You had no heart, so you stole mine. Burn like a firefly, then watch me die.’ The bridge is a heavy reverb of call-and-response saxophone phrases echoing the top line melody. A brilliance of clean guitar sweeps wraps around Mee’s distant vocal melody, falling into a symphonic finale cranked at max audacity. This brave piece is packaged and sent across the sea to a loved one drowning in betrayal's hollow, black eyes.
The EP concludes with ‘Chloroform / Nightmare’ enticing a slow, sweet, and vulnerable trance. Covered in a soft, hazy slumber, the high-octave piano plucks off and reflects a star-gazing synth. ‘It hits like chloroform, a thunderstorm. The rise and fall forevermore stuck in withdrawal.’ Dark pulses begin in the pre-chorus carving a facade of nightmares hiding in bleeding 7th chords. The first chorus is a kiss on the forehead sweetly choreographing Mee’s mourning fears, ‘I'm running from the nightmares that escaped from my head. It's coming, and I'm so scared. Not safe in my bed, so staying awake instead.’ The second verse is multifaceted with soundscaping beauty and hand-holding instrumentation before the crash and fall of the later choruses. The ambiance and heavy strings invite you to become transfixed by painful paralysis. A hats-off finale makes you feel desolate, slipping underneath Vecna’s enchanting, but iniquitous spell. This song is everything you could ever want. It's an irresistible, tragic saga.
With an all-inclusive high, punchy presence, The King and Queen of Gasoline cultivate a one-of-a-kind uniqueness, sensational energy, and captivating language speaking validation and affirmation to the misfits, the broken, and the lonely. This group never fails to keep you on your toes and guessing what attitudes come next with their signature introspective lyrics and unjaded themes.
All hail The King and Queen of Gasoline.
