Hot New Joint: "Hot Traveler" by Failure

It was really only a matter of time before last year’s Failure reunion provided tangible results—save for the days my ears were ringing after their blistering live set in Minneapolis, and for the two digital singles released during the course of said tour.

Following up the band’s 1996 opus/final album, Fantastic Planet, is no easy task, and I think the band is self-aware enough to realize that, which is why they’ve been taking their time working on The Heart is A Monster, slated for release at the end of June.

The nearly twenty year absence from the band has not hampered their sound or abilities—in an interview about the new album, and its first track “Hot Traveler,” Greg Edwards said that "Thematically we've moved from the outer space of Fantastic Planet to inner space—from the dislocation of one's identity to the complete erasing of it by sleep and dreams. I think we've used instrumentation in the service of mood and emotion to an even greater degree than on our previous records."

Pretty big talk there, and the trio are backing it up with the heavy duty “Hot Traveler.” Despite the slight eyebrow raise at the title of the song itself, the song hits hard. The bass lines throb, and Kellii Scott’s aggressive, energetic drumming packs incredibly solid, crisp punches.

What’s noticeably different about “Hot Traveler” in comparison to the band’s previous output—specifically Magnified and Fantastic Planet-era work—is the emphasis on accessibility. It’s a catchy pop song, dirtied up with fuzzed out bass and Failure’s trademark searing and distended guitar tones leading the charge.

In the time since Failure disbanded, de facto frontman Ken Andrews spent a majority of his time engineering or producing records for others—lending his trademark sounds to the likes of Pete Yorn, Blinker The Star, and Beck. His years behind the boards give this new Failure song—and presumably the whole album—a full, deep, pristine sound. And that’s just talking about the file I downloaded from iTunes. I presume listening to the 180 gram vinyl edition of The Heart is A Monster is going to be straight up off the chain.

“Hot Traveler” strikes a delicate balance by picking up the legacy of an amazing band, nearly 20 years after they called it quits. It sounds like quintessential “Failure,” but it’s also not an attempt to recreate the multi-layered, “space travel as a metaphor for heroin abuse and isolation” textures of Fantastic Planet. It’s a band that’s able to create a timelessness with their music—it’s not a dated, derivative attempt to bring the 90s to 2015. “Hot Traveler” is no nostalgia trip; it’s a refreshing song that is all at once heavy, catchy and artistic.

"Hot Traveler" is out now in the iTunes Store.