In Case You Missed It: Now That’s What I Call Hot Dad’s Music

January 17, 2019

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Hot Dad is an independent artist who has been making music – with accompanying videos – since around 2015, breaking onto the scene with an album of original theme songs for existing television shows. Over the past three years he has released a few EP’s worth of music covering topics such as wrestling, the Internet, and women; alongside multiple singles. Then in 2018 he gave the world the greatest gift of the year: a 29 song compilation, available on cassette, entitled Now That’s What I Call Hot Dad’s Music.

Back when TV was released I might taken Hot Dad as more of a novelty act, and then with the release of “Two Shits, One Fuck” I knew that Hot Dad was an artist to be taken seriously. Now it’s still extremely funny but I’ll be damned if you can listen to it without having the chorus stuck in your head for days. After this song was released we have been treated with a steady stream of stellar singles released on BandCamp, all embodying the same traits which make it such a catchy and toe-tapping good time. If you haven’t heard “Two Shits, One Fuck” yet, now is the time to remedy that grave mistake:

That first track is an absolute indication of what to expect on this near two-hour compilation: really good 80’s inspired folk/pop/rock tunes with catchy hooks and more LOL-worthy moments than anything released by Weird Al Yankovic or Tenacious D. And like those bands, the music can be enjoyed without the humor, but it’s definitely an added bonus. It’s not easy to categorize the genre of music as it’s all over the spectrum: one song might conjure up sounds from Huey Lewis and the News, another Tears for Fears, and then you’ll stumble upon a funky guitar riff that could be from Isaac Hayes! He is especially good at channeling the sound of 80’s new wave with songs like “Sports Men” — one of my favorites on here. While the music might be difficult to classify as a whole, it’s all categorically Hot Dad.

One may wonder how an artist who started out making (roughly) minute-long theme songs could pull off not only a few songs of the four-minute duration, but an entire album of them… Well worry not because the compositions are so intricate and all fully fleshed out – with additions like the occasional guitar solo or spoken monologue – bringing plenty of variety. Many songs feature interesting bridges like the embedded “Burger King (Aims to Please)” or an outro full of layered vocal harmonies as heard on “I Don’t Have a Sense of Smell”.

Lyrically a few of the songs tackle modern technological quandaries like knowing your meme, sharing images on social media, and picking which font to use when creating a website for kids. Several compositions are simply love letters to cultural phenomena which Hot Dad enjoys, for example rabbits, Star Wars, and vaporware. You’ll hear the topic of celibacy intertwined with ~~sexual innuendos~~ graphic sexual acts scattered throughout the entire run-time as well. But the real MVPs here are potential advertisements for restaurants, in the same vein of his television theme songs:

Now That’s What I Call Hot Dad’s Music is simultaneously a difficult record to review, and an easy one; in that if you enjoy one of these songs you will love them all. While that declaration might make my review rather short (and potentially lazy), it’s absolutely true with this release. The quality is consistently high and there’s not a single stinker on it. Everything about the album is spectacular: the lyrics, production, hooks, musical talent, and finally the packaging. In 2018 Hot Dad has given fans one of the best releases of the year, one that I’ll claim is actually better than the stellar TV (which was my third favorite release of 2015). Buy this album and support one of the greatest artists of this modern age.

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