Coming from the island Hot Hot Heat have been around for a long long long time, almost 35 years. The indie band became popular in the early 2000s known for their punk style with a hint of pop influence. Hot Hot Heat released their first album in 2002 and this album really set them up well in getting their name out. Hot Hot Heat are no longer active now as they stopped making music in 2016, but then made a comeback in 2024 and they have stopped making music again as the lead vocalist of the band Steve Bays could no longer commit to the band. 

In 2005 Hot Hot Heat released “Elevator”, their most popular album to date. This album was produced by Dave Sardy, one of the biggest producers in the game, a multiple time Grammy award winner and he’s helped bands like Oasis and The Who as well. With this kind of power behind the project no wonder it did as well as it did and is still talked about till this day. The album was even released through the Warner Bros record label so i think Hot Hot Heat were set up for success from the jump. 

The album starts off with “Running Out of Time”, which is a pretty good opener for this album. The breakout song on this album though is “Middle of Nowhere”. This record is a little bit slower than their other songs, but its catchy hook really makes it a foot tapper. The chorus really just makes you want to scream the lyrics, there is a reason why this is their most popular song. The ending track “Elevator” captures the whole theme of the album, the theme of personal growth. As this is the closing song it really is a great ending to a fantastic album.

Although Elevator did not quite achieve massive commercial success , it really solidified Hot Hot Heats place in the history of early 2000s indie music .​​​ This whole album to me feels like the end of a movie and maybe it’s because I’ve watched too many early 2000s films, but it really just reminds me of a perfect outro type of album.​ Twenty years later Elevator remains a reminder of a time when indie music dominated the airwaves.