#raspberry moon

[reckonslepoisson]

Raspberry Moon, Hotline TNT (2025)

Saw Hotline TNT live last year and knew something was up; no, not with them, with me. Already Will Anderson seemed increasingly over-reliant on shoegazing reverb, his songs blending into one long soaring mush. Raspberry Moon is sonically identical to Cartwheel and Nineteen in Love, to a point that it appears to replicate those records’ riffs, hooks and vocal melodies. It doesn’t feel new. 

Pick: ‘The Scene’

[sinceileftyoublog]

Hotline TNT's 24-hour Livestream

Photo by Charlie Boss

BY JORDAN MAINZER

The second Third Man release from NYC-based rockers Hotline TNT combines frontman Will Anderson's deeply felt pop sensibilities and riff reverence with the layered arrangements and wider sonic spectrums of a full band. Indeed, while Anderson initially considered making Raspberry Moon the last of the Hotline TNT solo affairs, he realized that his touring band--guitarist Lucky Hunter, bassist Haylen Trammel, and drummer Mike Ralston--was now unequivocally part of the Hotline TNT moniker. And so, the quartet banged out Anderson's demos with Tenement singer/guitarist and producer Amos Pitsch, himself basically the fifth member of the band, adding percussion and keys to a number of songs. The resulting album trades out predecessor Cartwheel's emphasis on sheer volume for greater dynamics and more gradually soaring heights, an even better match for Anderson's reflections on self-doubt and romance.

The bookends of Raspberry Moon, appropriately, build into a climax rather than going for the jugular right away. The squalling guitars and meaty drums on opener "Was I Wrong?" don't enter until a minute and a half in, the song essentially carried by Anderson's gentle questioning of a failed relationship. Closer "Where U Been?" noodles on siren-like guitars and deliberate drums before giving way to earsplitting shoegaze harmonics. That the album--a tight 35 minutes--begins and ends with similarly constructed tunes only makes you want to start it over, taking in all of the elements in-between that encapsulate everything you love about Hotline TNT while introducing new flourishes to the mix. Take lead single "Julia's War", whose swaying, fists-in-the-air rhythm makes room for an unlikely wordless chorus of "na na"s, bringing the stadium to the basement. Pitsch's piano supplements the jangly "Dance the Night Away" in all of its backhanded complement glory: "You could be in all the plays / Off Broadway," Anderson smirks. Chirping crickets, strummed acoustic guitar, and mild drum rolls soundtrack "Lawnmower", Anderson's blissed-out treatise on the peace and melancholy of post-tour domesticity.

Don't get me wrong: There's plenty of heart-on-sleeve power pop on Cartwheel. Anderson gains confidence on "Letter to Heaven", his dejected vocal turn belied by mighty distortion and propulsive percussion. The song's titular metaphor concerns doing something either outside of your comfort zone or that's a long-shot, like taking a driving lesson or buying a shirt without trying it on, but you can picture Anderson embarking on higher-stakes, like holding a boombox outside a crush's window. The massive "Candle" sums it up in a much simpler, anthemic refrain: "I wanna try / Get butterflies." Despite tracks like these that naturally segue from Cartwheel, Raspberry Moon is just as effective for the songs that would have made you raise an eyebrow coming from Hotline TNT, just a couple years ago. Off-kilter, woozy synth instrumental "Transition Lens" is a bold choice for a second track. Third track "The Scene" consists of one verse surrounded by huge instrumental intros and outros. And "Break Right" is perhaps the best song Hotline TNT have written to date, a bummed-out chugger built around sinewy tandem guitar and bass, sprinkled with acoustic guitar and piano. "If you could suffer my bad night / The music died," Anderson sings, as if he's begging someone to empathize with a case of writer's block. It's a new step for Hotline TNT, Anderson's earnestness front and center, unable to hide behind a wall of noise.

If the release of Raspberry Moon wasn't reason enough for Hotline TNT to make waves, two weeks ago, they removed all of their music from Spotify to protest CEO Daniel Ek's increasing, borderline cartoonish ghoulishness. On Friday, they'll participate in a 24-hour live stream on their Twitch, YouTube, and Instagram channels, starting at 11:00 AM CST. During the stream, they'll attempt to sell 500 copies of Raspberry Moon on Bandcamp (on Bandcamp Friday, when all the money goes to the artists themselves) and speak with other bands, music journalists, and record store owners about their favorite new music and where they find it, as well as how they feel about the politics of what is the (unfortunately) preeminent music streaming platform. Tune in and support this great band, keep purchasing music on Bandcamp and in record stores, and avoid relying on algorithms to find your next beloved record, opting instead for curated playlists or even publications--maybe this one!

[punkrockmixtapes]

Listen/purchase: Break Right by Hotline TNT

[grrlmusic]

Hotline TNT - Raspberry Moon

[dustedmagazine]

Hotline TNT — Raspberry Moon (Third Man)

For the longest time, the line on Hotline TNT was that their particular brand of distortion fell in the grand tradition of shoegaze. But to anyone with ears and a memory, this did a disservice in two ways: First, it needlessly elasticized the term “shoegaze,” further obscuring its roots by contemporary music writers for a contemporary music-reading public. Second, it downplayed just how strong Will Anderson’s songwriting skills are. Have a listen to Nineteen in Love’s “Slider” or Cartwheel’s “History Channel” again — what you’re hearing is Better Than Ezra, not Boo Radleys; more Matchbox 20 than My Bloody Valentine; the sound of VH1’s Top 10 Countdown, not MTV’s 120 Minutes. Underneath the crunchy post-grunge guitar veneer was the lineage of purposeful pop.

Raspberry Moon does nothing to dissuade this perspective. Much has been made of Anderson’s begrudging acceptance of his touring bandmates entering the fold for the studio recordings — unlike previous releases where Will would come to producer Amos Pitsch with a clutch of demos and they’d work through them together for the finished product before turning loose live, this time around, guitarist Lucky Hunter, bassist Haylen Trammel and drummer Mike Ralston all played a part in the creation of these tracks. Ultimately, though, that hasn’t dramatically affected the final outcome: Aside from the background vocal harmonies on “Was I Wrong?” and “Candle,” the “nah-nah-nah-nahs” of “Julia’s War,” and the majority of “Break Right,” this record sounds akin to its predecessors with a slightly heavier hand from Pitsch on the production polish.

What that also means is that despite the additional headcount in the studio, Anderson’s songwriting chops still shine through. “The Scene” was the song that made Raspberry Moon possible, Anderson’s brief sojourn upstairs at the Wisconsin recording studio to complete it alone met upon his return by the band’s mostly worked out “Break Right.” Though the latter fits comfortably into the middle of the track list, the high-octane riff of “The Scene” is more emblematic of what he can do when left to his own devices and given enough time to work them out. “Was I Wrong?” also has the feeling of a classic Hotline TNT tune: simple in structure, catchy, lyrically unconcealed. The template is there right through “Candle,” arguably Anderson’s most forthright love song — and also one of the four longest in Hotline TNT’s oeuvre at, wait for it, almost four-and-a-half minutes. (Another is “Lawnmower,” which clocks in here at 4:01; none are longer than five.) In addition to unfussy song structures, catchiness and lyrical openheartedness, then, a key tenant of the band’s music is that they’re succinct.

All of this only further serves the point that remains my biggest sticking point with this band. Mercifully, it has almost nothing to do with the band or the music itself, which remains enjoyably approachable. My beef is with what lies downstream — we have to stop framing this group as inheritors of the mantle Chapterhouse or Moose abdicated sometime in the blur of the mid-1990s; Anderson can throw in all the bent notes he wants, but Raspberry Moon is continuing evidence that instead of Swervedriver, we should be thinking of Semisonic. And as any good karaoke night out can confirm decades on from a release, there’s no shame in embracing the earworm. Right now, few rock bands are better equipped to offer one.

Patrick Masterson

[diz-cover]

Hotline TNT Raspberry Moon 2025

[tagong-boy]

Caladium “Raspberry Moon” ( PW-Heart to Heart )

https://www.provenwinners.com/plants/caladium/heart-heart-raspberry-moon-shade-caladium-caladium-hortulanum

[shirayukiyumiko]

Visit Original Link

Name: Raspberry Moon

Artist: 藍井エイル

Album: ツナガルオモイ