The White Hot Album Reminds Me That I Don't Like Labels.
I’ve just finished exploring the April release of White Hot by DFW band LABELS. Surprisingly, it’s their fourth full-length album in five years.
I suspect many of you in the local scene just asked yourself, “Four albums in five years, and I’ve never heard of them?”
Like me, you might wonder: does that mean you’re out of touch with the local scene? Or is it just another terrible band consistently releasing terrible music into the void? Naturally, we’ve got to give it a front-to-back listen.
From the jump, it’s a rowdy and raucous wall of noise and energy. The opening track, Wake Up, does exactly that. Oh, were you looking to dip a toe in on this album? Hoping to ease into the pool so your body could adjust?
Too bad. LABELS decided to throw you into a lake in the middle of winter so you can enjoy the thrill of not being able to breathe for a few moments as your body panics and switches into survival mode.
As the second track, Reality Check, plays—a monologue about the social and political issues of our time—I wonder if “trying to survive” is the unintended overarching theme of this album.
Track titles like Wake Up, Reality Check, 2Face, Devastation of Our America, Slaughterhouse, and Silver Serpent Tongue give you a glimpse into the angst and frustration the album conveys.
So now many of you are probably thinking, “Okay, so another band with relentless angst and frustration, blending loud and aggressive music to scream opinions at me, hoping they’ll change the world.”
Well… not exactly. While this particular album is, overall, an in-your-face demonstration of all that, tracks like 2Face, Let Me Bleed, and Toxic Love show that the band has more dimensions to explore—that their musicianship isn’t confined to a single genre.
Speaking of genres… what genre are they? Oh, how I loathe this question. But it always seems to need an answer. They describe themselves as a Fuzzy Garage/Punk Psych band.
On Spotify, they list influences like Ty Segall, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Thee Oh Sees, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, and Frankie and the Witch Fingers.
Yeah, okay—I guess that paints a picture… sort of. And that’s the hard part about this whole “genre” thing. I don’t usually get psyched when I hear “psychedelic.” I don’t specifically search for fuzzy garage bands or punk rock acts.
Do I enjoy certain bands in all of those genres? Absolutely. But the need to homogenize and label a band this way is always such a drag because of our own preconceived notions of what those labels mean.
And so far, we’re just talking about their latest release, White Hot. When exploring LABELS’ previous albums, the genre shifts occur just as often.
Outside the specific themes of the songs, White Hot reminds me once again that focusing on “genre” and “style” is only relevant because of marketing’s need to put things in neat little boxes to sell them to us.
One final point: Labels like “Garage Rock” and “Punk” sometimes come with the baggage of low-effort, poorly recorded noise that dares you to enjoy it seriously. Too often, they’re shorthand for music that leans on aesthetic over substance. The kind of thing you listen to with a smirk, half-joking, half-curious.
This is not a poorly produced album recorded with a cell phone strategically placed in a garage. The quality of the songwriting, performance, and production makes this—without question, in my opinion—LABELS’ best release so far.
So what’s the best way to describe this album?
Simply put, it rocks.
If you like anything remotely related to rock music, you should give it a listen, front to back, and see if LABELS becomes one of your new favorites.
Next on the list? Go watch ’em live.
Travis Wright is the host of the “I’m a fan of…” podcast. If you enjoy music and comedy, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and check out the You Tube Channel. Thanks!
