released 09/10/2006

"On first inspection, madcap Liverpool threesome Hot Club De Paris sound like a Futureheads clone. Handy since The Futureheads have moved onto their blue period and no longer sound much like The Futureheads. Yet from the second Hot Club ferocioussly channel the sea-shantyish spirit of early coral on opener "Shipwreck", 'Drop It 'Till It Pops' proves there's more to them than that. For one, they're the blackest whiite-boy schmindie band in the country, uploading a Snoop fixation into their spring-loaded punka pop; from the cheeky 'Drop It Like It's Hot' pun down to 'Who Am I's?' re-imagining of Snoop's (What's My Name)?' in barbershop style. But even that's not the whole story; of the more sombre moments, 'Bonded By Blood (A Song For Two Brothers)' is what would happen if The Mighty Boosh started human beatboxing over old trip-hop tracks. And then, when you realise how perfectly 'Sometimesitsbetternottostickbitsofeachotherineachotherforeachother' bootlegs with Christina's 'Aint No Other Man', you realise that Hot Club's true raison d'etre is to ram together as many far-flung genres into their Loony tunes barbershop pop as Xenomania's most bonkers productions for Girl's Aloud...the reallly dazzling thing about Hot Club De Paris is that they manage all this with the boring old bass, drums and guitar set up. When they decide what style they want to stick with, they could be unstoppable. [NME LP Review]

" 'Cheeky chappies': not the edgiest of descriptive terms, but one that is prompted by this Merseyside trio's debut. Put simply, Hot Club like things short and sweet. their quest: to see how muck kitchen-sink wit you can squeeze into two-and-a-half minutes of blistering speed-indie. And judging by the daftly-named 'Sometimesiitsbetternottostickbitsofeactotherineachother...' and 'Shipwreck', the answer is quite a bit. Think intricate math-rock rifs tuned to the key of fun and squashed into pocket-sized blasts of charming scouse pop" [Jaimie Hodgson' - The Observer Music Monthly]

"In just thirty five agitated minutes, Hot Club De Paris confuse and astonish. Built around ever-switching time changes, rattling drums, intricate riffs, unlikely harmonies and few choruses, their oeuvre owes much to the free wheeling underground ideas of The Minutemen, Fugazi and Canadian punk oddballs Nomeansno. With hugely ambtious tracks such as the acapella Bonded By Blood (A Song For Two Brothers) this is a band for the thinking art punk, although non-eggheads should also apply." [Q LP review]

"Lurching, jazz time explosions laced with pop joy by Liverpudlian trio. It shouldn't work but it does. Spiky scouse pop songs, hollerin' sea-shanty vox, baroque post-rock guitar twiddling and abstruse lyrical conceits; (love among casino employees; a clockwork toy circus that becomes a metaphor for everything) bizarre bedfellows that turn out to be quite uncannily compatible. Hot Club De Paris, singing bassist Paul Rafferty shares the plaid-clad piratical vibe and busy four-string attack of Minutemen's Mike Watt, helping make his band more of a connoisseur's proposition than their radio-frotting near relatives, Futureheads and Young Knives. But the extra work involved following the mix-and-match time signatures and complex, twangular rifting of guitarist Matthew Smiith is more than rewarded with irresistable adrenalin surges, pearls of lyrical wit "Sometimes its better not to put bits of each other in each other") and a poetical way with the first stirrings of romance" [Mojo LP Review]

"There is lots to love in this interesting Liverpudlian outfit. aside from the single 'Sometimesitsbetter...' and tracks such as 'Names and Names and Names', there are acapella gems such as 'Bonded By Blood' that suggests an imagination and ambition far beyond the confines of today's music. Its good" [Music Week LP Review]

"Keeping it underground gets you kudos kid, but it takes bravery to stick your head above the parapet. Reformed DIY Heads from the outskirts of Liverpool, Hot Club De Paris deal in three-part harmonies of lunatic cheerfulness, time-signatures that change direction like a pinball, and songs spiked with arch cult-ref, see 'Hello I Wrote a Song For You Called "Welcome To The Jungle"'. You can trace the melodic guitar cascades of 'Clockwork Toy' back to US maths sorts Don Cabarelllo or Dianogah, but Hot Club perform this with the knowledge of a couple of the (scant) lessons we learnt from britpop (embrace of regional identity, genuine interest in emotional connections. Take 'Bonded by Blood', a satire of two brothers' destiny in middle management set to beatbox and tumbling vocals "If one can work in an un supervised role, then one has fulfilled ones' parents' goal" [Plan B LP Review]