bar italia – Some Like It Hot
Some Like It Hot is a 1959 film starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon about a group of rogue musicians on the adventure path. It is funny, sexy, rambunctious and evergreen – a showcase of a triple-threat cast at full-throttle. Some Like It Hot is also the new album by London three-piece bar italia – out October 17th on Matador – and certain parallels are perhaps not accidental. It pulses with romance, intrigue, self-discovery and rapture over lustful rockers, spellbinding folk pop, punch-drunk ballads and undefinable moments that sneak up on you like a burst of 5pm sunshine. The record is the culmination of the joint world of Nina Cristante, Jezmi Tarik Fehmi and Sam Fenton – three singer-songwriters who have transcended their underground roots to embrace a bold, widescreen horizon.
New single ‘Fundraiser’, a kinetic and hook-laced headrush that is bar italia at their most exhilarating, arrives today with a video starring actor Matt King.
‘Cowbella’ sees kiss-and-tell gossip devolves into obsession: “Did she run or did she stay / whats it gonna take for you to say? How was her mother? Did she have a father? Did she keep a lover between the lines?” Unfolding over a wiry, shapeshifting rocker that arrives at a skywards coda of ghostly vocals, it’s a multi-pronged anthem that only bar italia could conjure.
Elsewhere on the album, ‘Marble Arch’ sees a playful shuffle like a midday stroll through Itchycoo Park is undercut with Cristante’s relaxed lilt: “I dreamt you hung yourself / And my little sister too / in desperation”. Fenton muses about “rain in london town / it reflects all the feelings of people around”. We are all walking around some part of a city trapped in our own thoughts, it seems to say. But the power of bar italia is where their voices join in a chorus of devastating poignancy, as with Jezmi and Nina’s: “What you doing in my head again / You dont belong here, you never did”.
The synergy of this three-way blunt rotation is embedded in the trio’s DNA. Cristante brings a studied actors’ sensibility to vocals ranging from honeyed (the aforementioned ‘Marble Arch’) to hell-bent and possessed (‘rooster’). Fehmi ranges from airy, brooding baritone (‘Lioness’) to mic-chewing megaphone histrionics (‘omni shambles’). Fenton, a wispy tenor, can veer between mystical melodicism and soaring blue-eyed soul within the same 8 bars (‘Plastered’).
The cultivation of their sound, from early homespun recordings like hand drawn sketches (the band presented an exhibition of their drawings in 2023) into the ceiling-wide brush strokes of Some Like It Hot, was chiselled via a relentless writing and touring schedule. When bar italia emerged in 2023 from an underground following to release two critically acclaimed albums on Matador only several months apart – the poised Tracey Denim and the grand The Twits – they were a shy, eye-contact-avoiding band, starting sets in darkness and just as soon disappearing backstage. They spent the next two years traversing the globe, with headline performances from Istanbul to Tokyo, sold-out multi-night stints in New York and Los Angeles, and festivals including Corona Capital, Glastonbury and Coachella. With over 160 shows worldwide across 2023-2024, they dispelled any mystique by becoming an exhibitionist and muscular five-piece that gives multiple encores – equally comfortable at festival mosh-pit incitement and moments of pin-drop intimacy.
Some Like It Hot is telling of this journey: a collection of rock songs voraciously embracing the main stage. The lightning choruses of ‘omni shambles’ and ‘Eyepatch’ show a band who have mastered melding their idiosyncrasies into tightly coiled pop songs. A pining for tangibility abounds: “just show me the face that you’ve been trying to hide”, Fenton opines on the Balkan-tinged waltz of ‘bad reputation’. Other songs surrender to abandon wholesale: “I was lost to the world from the moment we kissed”, Fenton sings on ‘rooster’, while on the 12-string new wave majesty of ‘Lioness’, Fehmi states, “You have no idea what I can do for you when I’m in this mood”.
bar italia have married their serious and heartfelt subject matter with a joy in showmanship. These are songs that twist their quirks into huge choruses, and find elevation in tension, playing with self-identity, emotion and performance until the lines blur. That 1959 Hollywood classic from which the album takes its name ends with the immortal line: “Well, nobody’s perfect.” This, however, comes pretty close.
LIVE DATES
August 22 – Malaga, Spain – Canela Party Festival
October 18 – London, UK – The Dome (SOLD OUT) *
October 22 – Milan, Italy – Santeria
October 23 – Barcelona, Spain – La 2 de Apolo
October 24 – Madrid, Spain – Sala Mon
October 28 – Paris, France – La Maroquinerie *
October 29 – Liege, Belgium – Reflektor *
October 30 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Toekomstmuziek *
November 6 – Los Angeles, US – The Bellwether #
November 8 – San Francisco, US – The Regency Ballroom #
November 10 – Portland, US – Aladdin Theatre #
November 11 – Seattle, US – Neumos #
November 12 – Vancouver, CA – Hollywood Theatre #
November 14 – Chicago, US – Thalia Hall $
November 15 – Cleveland, US – Beachland Ballroom $
November 16 – Columbus, US – Ace of Cups *
November 18 – Pittsburgh, US – Spirit Hall *
November 19 – Washington, US – Black Cat *
November 21 – Philadelphia, US – Warehouse on Watts *
November 22 – Brooklyn, US – Brooklyn Paramount $
November 24 – Boston, US – Paradise Rock Club $
November 25 – Montreal, CA – Club Soda $
November 27 – Toronto, CA – The Concert Hall $
November 28 – Buffalo, US – Nietzche’s $
November 29 – Woodstock, US – Bearsville Theatre $
* xmal
# Voyeur
$ Lifeguard
#baritaliaa