Hot Mulligan - Acoustic Vol. 1 + 2 [Indie Exclusive]

Acoustic reworkings are usually a contractual obligation. These are not. Hot Mulligan recorded the two Acoustic EPs in 2021 and 2022, stripping back songs built on distortion and volume to find out what was underneath, and the answer turned out to be better songwriting than the full-band versions let you hear.

Tades Sanville's voice is the whole argument. Without guitars to push against, the strain in it becomes the point rather than a texture, and "SPS" and "BCKYRD" land considerably harder here than on You'll Be Fine. "Featuring Mark Hoppus" keeps its joke of a title and loses none of its sting. The second volume brings two covers, a version of Taking Back Sunday's "MakeDamnSure" that plays it straight, and "Green Squirrel In Pretty Bad Shape" gets the quiet treatment it always seemed to want.

Both EPs on one LP means eight songs across two sides, which is short, and deliberately so. It works as a companion piece rather than a substitute.

Indie exclusive coloured vinyl reissue collecting both volumes for the first time, on Wax Bodega.