Review Summary: I wanted to mention in the review, but couldn't fit it in fluidly anywhere, that I believe the band's name comes from the 2016 novel of the same name by Deborah Levy.
Hot Milk is a four-piece pop-punk-rock band from Manchester, that formed in 2018 when dual vocalists/guitarists Hannah and James got drunk and wrote
Take Your Jacket together. This angst-filled breakup song, along with three other tracks that they wrote shortly after, would be released the following year as the
Are You Feeling Alive? EP. These songs are very straightforward – catchy, female/male vocal tunes with upbeat instrumentals. Their sound is comparable to bands like Against the Current and Pvris, that utilize female vocals and skirt the fine line between pop-punk and pop-rock.
There are a couple of continuous, underlying lyrical themes between the four songs on
Are You Feeling Alive? that make the EP feel interconnected rather than just a compilation of four singles. One of them, although never mentioned outright, is alcohol, which is not so surprising considering how the band began. But rather than singing lyrics about indulging, Hannah declares in
Wide Awake that she is "done living for the weekend" and that "it wasn't good for my mental health". The chorus of
Awful Ever After also has Hannah lamenting that she can't stay sober, whence drowning in the memory of her past love.
Another theme of the EP is cars, as well as the action of driving. The title-track, as its name suggests, is about not looking back, getting in your car, and driving through the city (what could make a group of friends or a couple in their early twenties feel more alive than that?).
Take Your Jacket is quite literally about telling your ex to take his jacket out of your car, with the jacket being the final literary device of which I'll mention. In the title-track once more, what could possibly be the same jacket referred to in
Take Your Jacket is mentioned again in the pre-chorus: "Cause I'm ready (Take a leap of faith with me) / I'm ready (Grab your jacket and your keys)". I'm surprised but also glad that Hot Milk didn't write one more song about both drinking
and driving.
Hot Milk is simply about writing fun songs, and as I've hopefully conveyed with my analysis, I think their lyrics are their strongest suit, as well as the catchy melodies with which they sing them.
Are You Feeling Alive? is only twelve minutes long, but it serves its purpose as a short, anthemic burst of what it feels like to be young and free.
