A note for those interested: Whatever anti-anxiety medication Hot Hot Heat were prescribed after 2002's nervous Make Up the Breakdown and 2005's underrated Elevator has finally kicked in, just in time for Happiness Ltd., the quartet's third major-label effort. The album has its high points, but whatever is keeping the band from panicking has quelled the frantic energy and quirky lyricism that made them worth listening to in the first place.
The opening - and title - track, a dour pop anthem that feels borrowed from the Killers, sets the pace for the rest of the album, unabashedly declaring happiness is limited, but misery has no end,"" and continues unsmilingly into ""Let Me In,"" a song desperately begging a girl to forgive sins past. The song is a whine for acceptance - if not in general then certainly for their new sound - and begs comparison to earlier days when HHH shouted ultimatums (""I'm pulling the alarm / so get in or get out!"").
The next few tracks, specifically ""5 Times Out Of 100
