How Come I'm Dead?

VINYL FORMAT. Hot Panda are just two boys and two girls from Edmonton trying to do the same thing they've always tried to do: play some kind of rock and roll that'll make people dance and feel happy. Simple stuff, right? The title of their sophomore album How Come I'm Dead? comes from a chance thrift store discovery, a book about the old Vancouver coroner. It speaks to all the weird occurrences and decisions that take place from the moment we're born, through all the twists and turns that provide the rich variety of life and culminate in our unavoidable demise. With Chris Connelly reflecting on the isolation of long distance relationships and constant touring, the album expresses the loss of the sense of having a home, made extra weird with things like Facebook that constantly remind you of all the things you're missing in all the places you're not. It feels a bit like being a ghost, being able to see and hear people you love carrying on with their lives and not being able to partake in it. Yet, like the title of that book, How Come I'm Dead? has a playful sense of humor to it, noting the lightness that shines around otherwise dark times. The album has moments of dreamy noise, circus freak dance, heartbreaking country ballads with screeching metal guitar solos, lovely pop harmonies, psychadelic drones, and straight up pop/rock numbers. There is even a hip-hop track, which includes a bass scratch solo and enough f-bombs to earn them an adult content warning sticker, and a grindy techno song. There is a sense of playfulness throughout the record, with enough common threads that the Hot Panda-ness still comes through with crystal clarity.