Ty Listen's to Har Mar Superstar's "Hot Dish"

I come to you today with another album review of another record I have been looking forward to for awhile now.

About a year ago I guy I am a big time fan of, Har Mar Superstar, announced that he was working with a singer named Sabrina Ellis, and they would be touring and releasing a record within a year. I was stoked. As I said, I love Har Mar, and anytime he works with someone else, it usually works out. He even made Macauly Caulkin sound decent when I saw him live, and Caulikn's Velvet Underground cover band opened for him. Needless to say, Har Mar is a pro, and he makes good choices. They call themselves Heartbones, and they released a few singles during summer. I loved those. I even thought of putting it on my best of music that year. I also heard that, on tour, Heartbones was doing the entirety of "Dirty Dancing" live on stage. I even had a shot to see them in Kansas City, but too much stuff came up and I had to miss the show. But still, I was following Heartbones on all social media. I listened to the released singles, I watched videos and I followed their announcements. So, when I saw Har Mar posting about the album coming out today, I was waiting with super anticipation. I took my daughter to the doctor this morning, and on the way we listened. I then went to my buddy's diner afterward and listened to it again. We then drove home and I listened for a third time. And as I type this, I am listening to it again.

Needless to say, I love this record. There is no bad song on the whole eleven song long record. Every song is an absolute homerun. The record opens with one of the singles I had already heard, "This Time It's Different", but they juiced it up a bit. They made it sound a little cleaner, and I am here for it. The rest of the record is so cool and poppy, in a great way, and a throwback to the "Dirty Dancing" era music and, I am now happy to admit this, I love a good, synthy piano, which is all over this album. The second track, "I Like Your Way" has that excellent 80's style sound that I have found myself digging a ton lately. "Open Relations" is groovy, funky tune that just makes me want to dance. Every song makes me want to dance on this album for that matter. "Control" has a great distorted sound to it, and I love the drums on the song. The vocals are pretty great as well. Both Har Mar and Sabrina Ellis can really, really sing, especially this genre of music. "Don't Read the Comments" is a perfect song for the current world we live in where anyone anywhere can tell people how they feel about their art. "Unforgivable" starts off with a really cool acoustic guitar and some soft piano and Ellis singing softly in, I believe, French. The song then builds and builds with some cool flange throughout the 3 minute run time. "Little Dancer" is the other single that made its way onto the record, and just like with "This Time It's Different", they added some studio magic, some more instruments, and it sounds wonderful. My daughter and I were both singing along this afternoon. The last four songs send this record out so perfectly. "Dashboard" sounds like it is straight out of an 80's movie montage, and I love every single second of it. This might be the most dance worthy track on the whole record. "Claws 87" is just a cool ass song. It has a cool feel to it, the lyrics are cool and the way they sing it is cool. This is the coolest track by far. They follow that up with their cover of "Hungry Eyes". Look, I enjoy the original, so to hear a couple singers I really like do an updated version of the song, it makes it that much better for me. I also love the distorted vocals that sound echo-ey throughout. And the closer, "Beg For It" rules. It is almost all synth piano and the singing is so cool. It sounds like the song that was at the end of the "Black Mirror" movie "Bandersnatch", except it is a tiny bit less robotic, and I am all in for it.

I love, love, love "Hot Dish". I cannot wait to listen to it a bunch of more times. I hope, they are touring again, that they come close to Saint Louis so I can go see them. This is the type of music I am really digging right now, and this record is simply wonderful. I cannot recommend it enough. Har Mar rules on this, and I am so glad that I now know who Sabrina Ellis is because she is a great, great singer. Go check out this record ASAP.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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