If their self-titled album was a three-act existential crisis in a dark basement, ‘Hotwire Trip Switch‘ is the moment Prince Daddy & The Hyena finally kicked the door down and realized it’s a beautiful, albeit chaotic, day outside. It feels like Kory Gregory and the gang found a stash of “borrowed electricity” and decided to use it to power a giant neon sign that says “We’re Still Stressed, But the Hooks Are Huge.” This record trades the sprawling concept-album gloom for punchy, 90s-infused pop-punk with a hint of that power-pop sound we’ve all grown to love over the years. It’s loud, it’s messy, and it’s arguably the most fun you can have while contemplating your own mortality.
The tracklist is a goldmine of sing-along in the car anthems, but several songs specifically deserve a trophy. “Big-Box Store Heart” is a masterpiece of suburban dread, turning a late-night trip to a 24-hour grocery store into a shimmering, stadium-sized singalong. Then there’s “24-03-04_Birthday_B4,” a track that feels like a mushroom-fueled fever dream where the only cure is more fuzzy guitar riffs. “The Heart of a Dog” is the musical equivalent of a golden retriever having a mild panic attack; it’s got raw, throat-shredding vocals wrapped in a melody so sweet it’ll give you cavities. Finally, “SHITSHOW or Boulevard of Soaking Dreams” delivers a high-speed collision of self-deprecating lyrics and the kind of infectious energy that makes you want to stage-dive off your own couch.
Ultimately, ‘Hotwire Trip Switch‘ proves that Prince Daddy doesn’t need a 70-minute narrative to tell a great story; they just need three chords and a lot of heart. Producer Joe Reinhart manages to polish the band’s sound just enough to let the melodies shine without scrubbing away the grit that makes them so endearing. It’s a record for anyone who has ever felt like a disaster but decided to dance through the “shitshow” anyway. If this is what “surviving on borrowed electricity” sounds like, I hope they never pay the power bill.
Links of interest:
https://www.instagram.com/princedaddyandthehyena
https://princedaddy.com/
https://counterintuitiverecords.com/pages/prince-daddy-the-hyena