ALBUM REVIEW: Hot Milk – Corporation P.O.P

‘…the sophomore slump has not only been avoided, but doused in petrol, set on fire, and shoved into a lake in the nearest urban park…’

Are Hot Milk the next big thing in alternative music? It is becoming increasingly difficult not to think that way, with the Manchester outfit not only supporting the likes of Blink-182, but going on their own global headline tours and headlining sizeable venues such as the O2 Victoria Warehouse of their home town. All of this feels well deserved; the band have not gone a year without releasing new material since their debut in 2019, and all of that material has been of a pretty damn good quality. Their 2023 LP ‘A CALL TO THE VOID‘ was a solid record that served as a the perfect conclusion to this band’s opening chapter, and two years later, we get to see what the next chapter is looking like for this relentless band.

Set against a backdrop of UK race riots and a Labour government refusing to offer any meaningful change, the US’s election of Donald Trump and his immediate cannonball jump into fascism, and the most widely recorded genocide of all time, ‘Corporation P.O.P‘ seeks to be a record for the end-times; this is Hot Milk looking outwards at all of the chaos, and looking inwards to ask how one person is supposed to cope, let alone change anything, when the system seems impenetrable. In the process, what they have written is not only an improvement upon their debut in every single way, but undoubtedly their strongest collection of tracks to date, heavy with ambition, creativity, and heart.

‘Insubordinate Ingerland‘ is a bristling rampage of a pop-punk cut that is packed with a venomous wit, as the band lament the race to the fascist bottom that the UK seems hellbent on engaging with. The choruses are viciously catchy, as Hannah Mee declares that they are ‘England ’til [they] die‘ against a relentless backdrop of punchy riffs and bold gang vocals. The breakdown bridge is brilliantly executed, with Jim Shaw chanting ‘God save the King/Douse me in kerosene‘ against crisp, chunky guitar chugs. The electrifying pace is maintained on the fiery ‘The American Machine‘, with its thunderous, moshable rhythms layered beneath rapid-fire lyrics that decry the warmongering imperialism of the USA. Shaw’s screamed vocals, especially during the outro, are wickedly brilliant.

‘90 Minutes To Midnight‘ is an electrifying number that is, despite the grim subject matter, a fantastically fun listen. The central guitar riff is pure rock’n’roll goodness, layered beneath gorgeously sung melodies from both Shaw and Mee as they stare down the apocalypse. The lyrics include brilliantly sharp lines such as ‘Your manifesto, it’s all a mess, though/Seen better prose from magazines in Tesco‘, which the band get away with thanks to Mee’s unapologetic Mancunian accent. ‘Sunburn From Your Bible‘ swaps out the pop-punk ideas for industrial and nu-metal tones, including record scratches, and the result is a gritty, swaggering critique of Christian fundamentalists. Once more, Shaw’s screamed vocals are brilliantly executed, with a violent rawness that ensures they land with the intended impact.

The highlights, however, are where the band push their sound into fully industrial and dance territories, which manages to not only feel wholly natural, but precisely what the record needed between all of the pop-punk bangers. ‘Hell Is On Its Way‘ is a thumping, anxious cut that grapples with the persistent, looming threat of nuclear war, whilst ‘Payment of Pain’ is a brooding, cinematic number marked with swaggering choruses, before culminating in a surging climax. ‘Warehouse Salvation‘, however, perfects the genre-fusing ideas, as the band grapple with hedonism and substance abuse as a means to block out the world, lyrics littered with references to the culture of their Manchester home. The track features a pounding, claustrophobic dance beat, woven with synth elements that sound directly influenced by the club dance sounds of the late 90’s and early 00’s.

The album comes to a phenomenal close on the sweeping ‘Sympathy Symphony‘, which not only lyrically links back to the album’s opening number, but offers a melancholic, bitter conclusion to the album’s themes and concept; at what point do you surrender to apathy as a means of coping with a world on fire? The climax features Shaw’s most intense screams across the entire record, plunging to blistering growled lows that would make deathcore bands proud; it’s a shiver-inducing close to a record that sees Hot Milk not only meeting their potential, but exceeding it.

There may well be a handful of tracks that maybe get lost in the extensive tracklisting, but the highlights of this record more than make up for any lows. For Hot Milk, the sophomore slump has not only been avoided, but doused in petrol, set on fire, and shoved into a lake in the nearest urban park. ‘Corporation P.O.P‘ is an impressive and engaging listen from start to finish that evolves perfectly upon what Hot Milk laid out on their earlier material; the lyricism is stronger, the musicianship is more creative, the themes are more focused, and the vocal performances are fantastically compelling. If they are the future of alternative, then the scene seems to be in very safe hands.

RATING: 79/100 – Mostly Very Good

For Fans Of: VUKOVI, Stand Atlantic, Yours Truly, My Chemical Romance, Thornhill

Physical copies of the record are available to purchase here.

Follow the band on social media via the links below:

Instagram // Spotify