If you are looking for scuzzy sounding guitar and lo-fi shoegaze stylings you have come to the right place. Hotline TNT’s third album is their first written as a full band. It is also their best effort yet.

Will Anderson created the first two albums as Hotline TNT with very little exterior input. It was just him and a producer. By the time he was touring the second album, a full band had coalesced around him. He had planned on going in and recording the third album in the same manner. Instead, the rest of the band had other ideas and forced their way in. The end result has given the new album layers that the previous efforts did not possess.

This a brisk album, eleven tracks clocking in at around 35 and a half minutes. All three singles had a great sound. ‘Julia’s War’ comes in with a real wall of sound before slowing down to allow the vocals to come in. It has a real anthemic quality to it. Anderson says: “In a world of half-hearted hooks, and buried-in-the-mix vocals, we had to muster the courage to do what the rest of the shoegaze community could not… We looked out to the stadium and reassured the audience: Our voices, together, will be heard. You’ve never heard a TNT chorus this straightforward – when we stress-tested it during the writing process, the ‘try not to sing along challenge’ came back with a 100% fail rate.”‘ Break Right’ opens on more of a groove. ‘Candle’ has a real energy, driving along at pace.

There is some real technical proficiency on display amongst this collection of tracks. Energy, harmony and a feeling of gems uncovered from mining at the musical rockface. The opening three tracks all bring different things to the party. ‘The Scene’ is particularly strong, a glorious swirling guitar line married to some heavy-duty drums. There is almost something Smashing Pumpkins about it until the vocals kick in.

A couple of the later tracks blur into each other a little, the only slight dip in quality. ‘Dance The Night Away’ gets things going again before ‘Where U Been’ provides a great ending. This is a very decent album and proof that there is still life in the shoegaze scene.

Hotline TNT are on tour round the UK and Ireland in November:

Sun Nov 9th – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Tue Nov 11th – Dublin, IE @ Workmans Cellar
Wed Nov 12th – Manchester, UK @ White Hotel
Thu Nov 13th – Glasgow, UK @ Mono
Fri Nov 14th – Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds
Sat Nov 15th – Cambridge, UK @ Portland Arms
Sun Nov 16th – Southampton, UK @ Joiners
Mon Nov 17th – Cardiff, UK @ Clwb Ifor Back
Tue Nov 18th – London, UK @ The Garage