How much do the members of bar italia care? It’s a repeated phrase on their new album that declares they aren’t I like it hotsometimes a sigh of despair, sometimes a terrible reproach. The songs often revolve around someone losing their wits, but it’s also a conscious shift from the cool detachment that characterized the band’s previous releases, and a natural result of touring the world and meeting public expectations. “I found myself trying to please them and trying to show them that I care,” Nina Cristante laments on “Plastered.” bar italia’s approach is to simply refine the production and allow for extra vulnerabilities. Taking its name from the classic Billy Wilder film about two musicians who cross-dress to join an all-female band, it’s still a brash, prickly, and infectious record that finds the London trio at a crossroads, and if not quite renewed, they’re getting there.
1. Fundraising activities
“Fundraiser” opens the record with a strong example of bar italia’s newly streamlined sound. The infectious groove is simple but rarely stagnant, focusing on the interplay between male and female vocals that question the line between fantasy and apathy, obsession and loneliness. The most evocative moment occurs when Nina Cristante’s dispassionate calm fades and she remembers “So I try to picture you / from behind.” It’s a compelling portrait of two lovers turned from one breaking point, where their voices inevitably converge.
2. Marble Arch
“I don’t think we’ve ever met in real life/Even in my dreams,” Cristante sings on the previous song, and the song opens with a shocking line: “I dreamed you hung yourself/And my sister too.” Her performance subtly soothes anxiety over a gentle beat. The song loses some of its power as the songs overlap and become more of a duet, distracting from the haunting emotion in Cristante’s voice.
3. Bad reputation
About halfway through “Bad Reputation,” Cristante gives an apt description of the song’s atmosphere: “This feverish haze is a flawed mania / That makes us dance in a broken show.” Accented by the sound of shattering glass, it’s both a bit on the nose and distinctive in its absurdity, foregrounding the fact that even a hypnotic waltz can’t cover up the toxic stench.
4. Cowbella
Like “Fundraiser,” early single “Cowbella” took shape within the first week of recording and was immediately hooked. It is also the first song of I like it hot It really amplifies the trio’s dynamic, with each member fishing for their own moment in the spotlight, baiting the hook, so to speak. There’s a strange sensuality to the song and its subject matter that only adds to the mystique the band were trying to dispel, except that the song’s mysterious figure is not only separate from the band, but also the very object of its fascination.
5. Make your own dust
The gritty and mesmerizing “I Make My Own Dust” leans further into its escapist leanings, pushing the album’s sound in a more grungy direction. “There’s a part of my soul that can’t wait to go home/And there’s a part of me that finds it wherever I go/There’s a small, insidious side that just wants to escape,” Cristante admits. I wish the spoken word parts didn’t feel so awkward and like they were pasted in from another song.
6.Stucco finish
The languid sway and weary introspection of “Plastered” are a perfect fit for Bar Italia, inviting connections between songs like “I make a war I have to join/I’ll figure out a way to protect myself,” which brings to mind opener “The Lonely War.” There’s a bit more nuance between the vocal turns here, more push-pull than vague tension.
7. Rooster
“Rooster” quickly proved to be the best of the album’s singles, boasting a jarring chord progression, a great guitar solo, a surprising twist, and the trio’s most passionate vocal performance. A real-life manic rendition of a “Bad Reputation” romance, probably filmed at another point in time. So accomplished that the rest of the album feels a little undercooked.
8. Women disappear
As the title suggests, “the lady vanishes” is another ghostly gothic track on the album, with wailing, eerie guitars and expansive drums. Sam Fenton’s vocals, in their bristling desperation, completely sell the song at its climax.
9. Lioness
Even without some of its clunky lyrics, “Lioness” fails to bring new ideas to the table, recycling ideas from songs like “Fundraiser.” “It’s so easy for things to move on / So your face runs away from me / My tears subside / And it’s like you’re finally gone / It’s this failure that still haunts me.” But without as many seductive hooks, the song doesn’t feel all that haunted.
10. Omni Shambles
Another charming single – the proof I like it hot It would have been more successful as an EP. Jezmi Tariq Fehmi’s frenetic chorus intertwines with Cristante’s dreamy verse as she heads into space. “We will run hand in hand until the end of time/Under a sky that only changes color/The stars will remain stars/The clouds will remain clouds.”
11.Eye patch
Faster and more jangly than most of the songs on the album, “Eyepatch” makes heavy use of straight, memorable riffs and adds flourishes like hand claps to keep the song engaging rather than dilute it. “I feel like I just had the worst time ever,” Cristante sighs, as if she’s enjoying the feeling.
12. Some Like It Hot
Bar Italia’s newly honed sound replaced the “flawed mania” that better described the band’s earlier releases with a sense of vulnerability. There are awkwardness and imperfections here too, and they’re still part of what makes their dynamic so fascinating, but it’s when they’re able to reflect on them that it feels like they’re moving forward. The final title song shines in this respect. Despite the album being primarily about the struggle to shake one thing out of one’s head, the confession, “There’s one thing I regret: I couldn’t get you out of my head at any point that night,” feels both regrettable and enlightening. A lot has been said in I like it hot – gritted teeth, quiet whispers, sudden shrieks – and not all of it makes sense. But it’s a testament to the band stepping up and keeping the blood flowing.
Source: Our Culture – ourculturemag.com
