Michael Hann 

Hooded Fang: Tosta Mista – review

There are some decent, brattish pleasures on this Canadian garage band's new album, but nothing to really make them stand out, says Michael Hann
  
  


Tosta Mista is being pitched as a break-up album – the break-up being between two of the Canadian band's members – but only the foolish would turn to Hooded Fang in search of earnest poetry about heartbreak. That much is clear on Clap, whose choruses involves Daniel Lee singing at his departed ex: "When you take off all your clothes/ You still look like an icy ho." Tosta Mista is nothing if not insubstantial: from its 23-minute running length (just seven actual songs, with three instrumental refrains) to its chosen genre (60s-styled beat pop), it cries out not to be taken seriously, no matter how personal the wounds of its makers might be. At their best – on ESP, the title track, or Jubb – Hooded Fang are the kind of pleasantly brattish garage poppers we've heard a thousand times before, and will hear a thousand times again. Compared to, say, the Black Lips, though, their toothlessness is apparent.

 

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