Hotline TNT probably weren’t the band you’d guess would end up sounding like one of the cleanest and most polished indie rock outfits around today. The Brooklyn band, spearheaded by former Weed guitarist Will Anderson, didn’t make discovering their early music easy. Back then, it was just Anderson alone in his bedroom studio, recording syrupy, distortion-warped love songs and tracks about mundane living — mostly released on cassette through Smoking Room Records or scattered across download portals on the band’s website, as an active social media presence wasn’t the band’s thing. But since leveling up as a proper four-piece on Jack White’s Third Man Records, and riding the acclaim of their 2023 sophomore effort Carousel, Hotline TNT’s ambitions have become clear: they’re done hiding behind the hiss.

If you’ve been a Hotline TNT listener since day one, Raspberry Moon may feel a little jarring at first. Its outer veneer is less about loud layers of static and swirling emotive synesthesia, and more forthright in its desire to create heart-bursting anthems where the feelings stand front and center. “Julia’s War” may be named after the modern DIY shoegaze label run by They Are Gutting a Body of Water’s Doug Dulgarian, but its structure — alongside the “nah-nah-nah-nah!” chorus — is more in line with Britpop pop-rock anthemry than Brooklyn underground rock oddity. The jangled tail-end standout “Dance the Night Away” only emphasizes that shift.

That’s not to say Hotline TNT have fully left their shoegaze past behind. Instead, they’ve discovered that a widescreen projector and the art of collaboration (it’s the first album where Anderson ceded complete creative control to guitarist Lucky Hunter, bassist Haylen Trammel, and drummer Mike Ralston) can expand their sonic diagram to reach more ears, rather than compressing it to a breaking point. Crushed electricity is now focused and funneled through narrower cable channels, supercharging the power supply behind them and rendering listens like “The Scene” and “If Time Flies” emotionally overwhelming that meet the moment in their energy. In acknowledging their own growth as one of indie rock’s most well put-together nuanced sounds, Hotline TNT shoot for the Moon and hit the mark.

Highlights: “The Scene”, “If Time Flies”, “Dance the Night Away”

Hotline TNT’s Raspberry Moon is available now on Third Man Records.

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