Scene Queen
Hot Singles In Your Area – Hopeless Records
As times change and language moves forward, some lyrics don’t mean what they used to.
Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’ for example… There’s a man doing WHAT to his tonic and gin?????
It is Devo’s sincere wish that some of the lyrics on ‘Hot Singles In Your Area’ similarly make
no sense to listeners at some point in the future. For example, ‘You get a lot of girls but not
one is 18 plus’ (18+). ‘If I had a d*** I’d be dangerous’ (‘Girls Gone Wild’). Pretty much the
whole of ‘Mutual Masturbation’. The times when misogyny, baseless fear-induced hatred and
downright abuse are no longer the ways of the world, and these lyrics require an explanation
can’t come quickly enough. The track titles may well prompt an eye roll, but even though
explicit is an understatement for several of these songs, their names don’t mean what we
first expect. Which is the point. The music? Heavy beats, grating riffs, discordant hooks,
bleeps, beeps and shrieks. Scene Queen is perfectly capable of clean singing, but when
you’re rightly angry, there’s not a lot of point in a melody. She’s coined the term Bimbocore,
but ‘Oral Fixation’ can best be described as 90s acid house vs metalcore. Ooof. Then there’s
closing track ‘Climax’ (if you’ve been paying attention you could’ve guessed that title) which
is a power lament that nothing lasts forever and life is cruel. ‘Hot Singles In Your Area’ is a
clever, thought-provoking and uneasy listen.
Review by Jo Wright