Dearborn Music

Reviews:

Too much Pat Benatar is never enough. The young ladies of Sahara Hotnights proved that by rewriting "Heartbreaker" twelve times on 2002's awesome Jennie Bomb. But now that they're legally able to drink at the clubs they played during their last American tour, the Hotnights have apparently forgotten all about their spiritual godmother. When Maria Andersson sings "My baby's so blind, he can't tell/ The difference between love and hell," the answer should be obvious: love is a battlefield, and hell is for children. They also must have missed that part of the Behind the Music special where Benatar agreed that most of her later singles sucked because they didn't showcase her personality-or else there'd be a lot more of the cheek displayed on "Hot Night Crash" and a lot less of the paint-by-numbers rock of "Walk on the Wire" or useless balladry of "Stay/Stay Away."

Problem is, many of the record's sonic advancements-punctuating tracks with a synthesizer, blowing the dust off the group's three-chord wonders with cleaner production-feel inessential. On the girl group homage "Keep Calling My Baby," Andersson practically sleepwalks through the chorus ("ah ah uh huh ah huh" ) and overall no one sounds particularly enthused with the move towards pure pop-even though your mom will love it. Ya know, Saint Benatar let her hair down on "Shadows of the Night" without slowing things to a narcoleptic tempo-take a cue and burn the bras, sisters.

"Too much Pat Benatar is never enough. The young ladies of Sahara Hotnights proved that by rewriting ""Heartbreaker"" twelve times on 2002's awesome Jennie Bomb. But now that they're legally able to drink at the clubs they played during their last American tour, the Hotnights have apparently forgotten all about their spiritual godmother. When Maria Andersson sings ""My baby's so blind, he can't tell/ The difference between love and hell,"" the answer should be obvious: love is a battlefield, and hell is for children. They also must have missed that part of the Behind the Music special where Benatar agreed that most of her later singles sucked because they didn't showcase her personality-or else there'd be a lot more of the cheek displayed on ""Hot Night Crash"" and a lot less of the paint-by-numbers rock of ""Walk on the Wire"" or useless balladry of ""Stay/Stay Away.""

Problem is, many of the record's sonic advancements-punctuating tracks with a synthesizer, blowing the dust off the group's three-chord wonders with cleaner production-feel inessential. On the girl group homage ""Keep Calling My Baby,"" Andersson practically sleepwalks through the chorus (""ah ah uh huh ah huh"" ) and overall no one sounds particularly enthused with the move towards pure pop-even though your mom will love it. Ya know, Saint Benatar let her hair down on ""Shadows of the Night"" without slowing things to a narcoleptic tempo-take a cue and burn the bras, sisters.

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