by Corey Sustarich
Unconcerned with mystifying the listener with over-complication, Hotline TNT make hard-to-find pop hits that have sprouted through the proverbial cracks. Nineteen In Love was released on October 1st via Will Anderson’s YouTube account, “Flip Sandy.” A statement on the current music industry and garden-variety burnout and disillusion, Anderson puts none of this band’s music on streaming services. At the bottom of this album’s description he simply states, “We have no choice - we have to keep going. Cancel your Spotify subscription.” The only place you can find this album, and all their other great music, is through YouTube or physical media. Adding a layer of consciousness to the listener’s experience separates Nineteen in Love, physically and metaphorically, from other modern releases.
Mixed into the middle, instruments snake through one another without rush. Guitars carve their hooks along a lake of layered fuzz as curving notes drip off Anderson’s bending neck. Drums smash loud distant structures that drip with patience and cool. Synth leads, auto-tune, and sparkly overdubs add to the album’s ambience, reminiscent of a sticker-laden spiral-bound notebook full of secrets and wide-eyed observations. In fact it was recorded on an old MacBook Air during the pandemic. With gusts of fuzz and beams of synth, restrained layers and cranked effects, “Stampede” scratches the Hotline TNT itch. Meanwhile, “4-HT” is an auto-tuned outlier for the band, capturing the nostalgia of a past relationship. Anderson says, “Even though it didn’t work, I’m glad it happened and wouldn’t change anything.”
If you are looking for more from Will Anderson you can visit his website, assnup.com, where he links his music, news, tour dates, and physical media including a fanzine called the Association Update, or Ass ’N Up for short, which deals primarily with his love for basketball. The sheer magnitude of these chunky rock songs makes the extra sleuthing well worth the effort. And sure, they won’t be popping up in your Spotify Wrapped but that doesn’t mean Anderson has gone unnoticed.