Junior: “Does that mean you play that very fast music? Jazz?”
Sugar: “Yeah! Real hot!”
Junior: “I guess some like it hot. I personally prefer classical music.”
This exchange between Tony Curtis’ Junior and Marilyn Monroe’s Sugar in the 1959 film Some Like It Hot is where the titular phrase stems from. And it has since been adopted as the title of the fifth album by artsy London indie darlings bar italia. While the band has no connection to the jazz category, the phrase still feels apropos.
Bar italia is acutely aware they’re not for everyone. Their approach to the genre is a little too eccentric, a little too angular, a little too… well, hot. Even so, they’ve spent the last half-decade creating music sharp enough to carve out a niche and establish themselves as one of the UK’s more unique musical prospects of the 2020s. They haven’t exactly made a classic in the spirit of the album’s namesake, but there’s enough going on here to both justify and sustain their cult following.
Across 45 minutes, Some Like It Hot presents the trio’s sound as more streamlined and slick than their previous efforts. While 2023’s LP The Twits opened with the warped garage rock of “My Little Tony,” Hot takes a different approach. Instead, it opens with the slinking bassline of “Fundraiser,” which soon gives way to urgent guitar chops and the strained post-Britpop vocals of guitarist Sam Fenton. It’s emblematic of the album’s highlights. Each track either feels like lost cassingles from Cool Britannia or mp3s downloaded from a long-dormant 2000s indie blog.
All three members of bar italia share vocal duties, which serves as a defining feature of the band’s sound. None of them possess what might be considered a conventional vocal style, though. This can naturally create a barrier that some listeners may find impossible to get past. On tracks like the propulsive “I Make My Own Dust” and the rocking single “Rooster,” however, the payoff justifies the challenge.
This is especially true on “I Make My Own Dust,” where each vocalist plays to their strengths for just the right amount of time. Guitarist Jezmi Tarik Fehmi tags in for Fenton on the pre-chorus, peppering in a touch of sprechgesang weirdness. Then, Nina Cristante takes center stage, unleashing her inner riot grrrl as she shrieks: “Borrrow, Stolen/ From someone! Anyone!”
Of course, not everything on Hot sticks the landing. The seasick waltz of “Bad Reputation” leaves Fehmi on his own as lead vocalist, and the composition quickly overstays its welcome, becoming cloying. The closing title track also falters, sending the album out with a whimper instead of a bang. Why the band chose this damp, greyscale acoustic shuffle to close the album when the steady build and shredding wig-out of “Rooster” was right there is truly anybody’s guess.
Still, as they say in the film that started it all: Nobody’s perfect. Bar italia’s Some Like It Hot is adventurous and ambitious by design. Ultimately, isn’t a band that takes risks and stumbles better than one that plays it safe? In an era where AI-generated music can outperform human work, aar Italia stands as a cat among robotic pigeons.
Some fans will love the new bar italia record. Others will stick to classical music instead. Bar italia doesn’t care. They’ll keep playing that very fast music regardless— real hot, just the way they like it.