Hotline TNT: Raspberry Moon [Album Review]

Hotline TNT
Raspberry Moon
Third Man Records [2025]

“Hotline TNT plug into full-band power and deliver their most heart-on-sleeve shoegaze yet.”

Album Overview: Hotline TNT started as Will Anderson’s lo-fi solo project, building emotional, guitar-scorched songs from his bedroom. Rooted in New York but shaped by Midwest grit, the project gained traction with 2023’s Cartwheel, pushing Anderson out of solitude and into full-band territory. Raspberry Moon is the payoff: a vibrant, fuzz-drenched record that marks the true arrival of Hotline TNT as a collaborative unit. With longtime touring bandmates Lucky Hunter, Haylen Trammel, and Mike Ralston now fully in the fold, the album feels lived-in and immediate. Across 11 tracks, the band dives into personal reckoning and open-hearted connection—songs about starting over, leaning on your people, and sounding wide open while doing it.

Musical Style: Shoegaze might be the obvious tag here, but Raspberry Moon leans more melodic than murky. Guitars roar and shimmer in equal measure, swerving between sharp distortion and thick feedback, yet never drowning out the hooks. There’s a balance at work—steady rhythms, dreamy textures, and choruses that hit with unexpected clarity. It’s shoegaze for fans of feeling something: emotionally raw, but never slack.

Evolution of Sound: Earlier Hotline TNT releases had a scrappy, stitched-together charm—one person chasing a sound in isolation. Raspberry Moon sounds like a band breathing together. The interplay adds muscle and movement, giving the songs a natural lift. The textures are fuller, the noise better sculpted, and the emotional throughlines more direct. This is Hotline TNT finding its footing and pushing forward, without sanding off the rough edges.

Artists with Similar Fire: If DIIV and Swirlies had a jam session in a basement with Bandwagonesque-era Teenage Fanclub on deck, you’d be somewhere in Hotline TNT’s orbit. Fans of Yo La Tengo’s gentler fuzz and the big-hearted punch of early Smashing Pumpkins or Narrow Head will feel at home in the swirl.

Pivotal Tracks: “Julia’s War” is a standout with its chant-along chorus and serrated guitars, planting the flag for this new version of the band. “Break Right” slips into darker terrain, driven by locked-in rhythms and ghostly vocals. “Candle” is maybe the record’s brightest flame—a shimmering, open-hearted love song that rides its hook all the way home. Each track casts a slightly different light, but together they glow.

Lyrical Strength: Will Anderson ditches the cryptic stuff in favor of something sharper and more human. His lyrics here are plainspoken but resonant—about emotional rebuilding, care without irony, and finding stability in the people who stick around. It’s refreshingly unguarded, and that openness gives the record much of its staying power.

Final Groove: Raspberry Moon doesn’t reinvent shoegaze, but it recharges it with heart. It’s confident without being polished, wounded but hopeful, noisy yet full of clarity. Hotline TNT have stepped out of the bedroom and into the light—still swirling, still loud, but with a new sense of purpose. If Cartwheel was the breakout, Raspberry Moon is the bloom. And with this lineup locked in, don’t be surprised if they shine even brighter next time.

HOTLINE TNT REVIEW HISTORY
Cartwheel (2023)

HOTLINE TNT LINKS
Website | Instagram | Bandcamp | Third Man Records