American pop-punk/emo band Hot Mulligan released their third LP Why Would I Watch on May 12th, 2023. Unlike my previous reviews, this album/artist is stuff that could actually be played on Evolution, so that’s a win for the radio station! Their sound on this album is invoking a more Blink-182 vibe, which works pretty well.
Hot Mulligan has been around since 2014, and they’ve gone through a lot of band members since then. Their Wikipedia page actually has a graph timeline detailing all of the member changes in the last nine years. At the moment, there’s 4 of them, with Nathan Sanville being the only consistent member since 2014.
Their sound has been pretty emo, pop-punk, midwest emo throughout their releases, but on Why Would I Watch, I’m noticing that they’re leaning more into the pop punk stuff and straying slightly from true whiny emo, which is nice! Other recent pop punk releases from…certain artists…haven’t been the best, so it’s refreshing to have an actual good pop punk release in 2023. Their 2020 album you’ll be fine leaned way more into the emo sound, comparatively.
Why Would I Watch is 12 tracks long and only 37 minutes long, so very easy to listen to all in one go. The songs all have pretty goofy titles, such as “This Song is Called it’s Called What It’s Called”, which doesn’t make much sense, and “Christ Alive My Toe Dammit Hurts”. Hot Mulligan is kind of a goofy group, and that is kind of a drawback for me, but this level of maturity is very common in the emo scene, so I can’t be too mad about it.
Sanville’s abrasive, emo scream vocals are still present, thankfully, but are toned down a bit. The mathy guitar riffs are still there, but again, they aren’t the main focus of the songs like they once were on you’ll be fine. The lyrics are typical Hot Mulligan lyrics, and all the tracks are fun yet melancholic–a staple of the genre. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these songs made it into the Evolution 107.9 music rotation sometime soon.
My favorite tracks are probably “No Shoes in the Coffee Shop (Or Socks)” and “Shhhh! Golf is On”. Sanville’s vocals are my main draw to Hot Mulligan. I’m not the biggest fan of theirs, but I do like the way that guy sings.
Why Would I Watch was a good pop punk record, and I’d give it 3.5/5 stars. If you like the stuff that plays on Evolution, then you’d probably like this record, so I recommend it!