Hot Milk
90 Seconds To Midnight

The firehose of riffs is unleashed and Hot Milk have returned to gift us new music. As we’ve come to expect, they do this by hurtling along in a high-energy mix of melody, blasts, and screams. I’m not gonna lie, though, I’m excited.

The song they’ve dropped on us like a friendly bomb is ’90 Seconds To Midnight’. The riffs, angst, and philosophy-inspired lyrics remind me of the craft and penmanship of Therapy?, while the lyrics speak of the menace of things to come.

’90 Seconds to Midnight’ signals Hot Milk are pulling no punches in their views of England and The West more generally, with insights made possible by extended time away from home.

We all must live with the burden of modernity and this pain has been commodified; we all must pay. Corporation pop itself is a term Han’s grandad used to refer to the water supply, something that runs throughout all our homes, just as current events run through us all.

Jim Shaw

The song’s tone matches this visceral reaction to current affairs, a perfectly angular musical accompaniment to the abject rejection of it all. As events unfold before us in real time, the album seems timely.

It’s not their fault that they are mad, they’ve tasted Hell.

The Doomsday Clock is nearing midnight and this frantic song sets the mood for the oncoming nuclear winter. We wanted to punch you proper in the face with this, this balls-to-the-wall little riffy boy comes bounding at you relentlessly.

Lyrically we took inspiration from 17th century philosopher Rousseau and the poet John Betjemen with his poem Slough. Rousseau set out that humanity would never be free as we create our own shackles. In this case, we’ve created our own demise. Whereas Betjemen’s poem takes this notion of demise and laughs at it, inviting the nukes in ‘come friendly bombs’… Let’s set the gaff on fire and start again.

Han Mee

Corporation P.O.P. arrives June 27, 2025.

90 Seconds To Midnight Video

The video projects images that relate to the song as well as the broader album, Corporation P.O.P. You might also notice Frank Skinner joyously traversing the post-apocalyptic streets.

Watch Hot Milk – ’90 Seconds To Midnight’.

90 Seconds To Midnight Lyrics

Your manifesto
It’s all a mess though
Seen better prose from magazines in Tesco
You spark an essay
On what you say goes
Three pints down and I bet you think you’re Rousseau

Born into chains in a world that’s gone insane
So goodbye
(Ooooo ooooo)
They got a bouquet of bullets
And an appetite to crucify
(Ooooo ooooo)
The gaffs on fire, it’s too far gone
The guns for hire are at the door
Pray to your god
COME FRIENDLY BOMBS

Div on the TV
It’s like he sees me
Bouncing by the ounce until I feel queasy
Here’s a reset
Nuclear sunset
No-one’s getting out alive

I was born into chains in a world that’s gone insane
So goodbye
(Ooooo ooooo)
They got a bouquet of bullets
And an appetite to crucify
(Ooooo ooooo)
The gaffs on fire, it’s too far gone
The guns for hire are at the door
Pray to your god
COME FRIENDLY BOMBS

SIT DOWN AND LISTEN
ARUGHHHH
TICK TOCK ON THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK
WE’RE THE VIPs OF THE AFTERSHOCK

Born into chains in a world that’s gone insane
So goodbye
(Ooooo ooooo)
They got a bouquet of bullets
And an appetite to crucify
(Ooooo ooooo)
The gaffs on fire, it’s too far gone
The guns for hire are at the door
Pray to your god
COME FRIENDLY BOMBS

Written by Fenton on 3rd March 2025

Steve Fenton writes in our music, words, and culture categories. He was Editor in Chief for The Mag and covered live music for DV8 Magazine and Spill Magazine. He was often found in venues throughout the UK alongside ace-photographer, Mark Holloway. Steve is also a technical writer and programmer and writes gothic fiction. Steve studied Psychology at OSC, and Anarchy in the UK: A History of Punk from 1976-1978 at the University of Reading.

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