What If Leaving Is a Loving Thing is the fourth studio album by Swedish band Sahara Hotnights, released through their own record company Stand By Your Band.
The band formed sometime around 1991/1992 "due to boredom". While in Australia, Josephine Forsman bet on a horse named Sahara Hotnights and used the name for the band. Around 1995, they won a "battle of the bands" contest and were rewarded with a chance to record their songs in a studio, including demo cassette "Oh Darcy". Their debut EP, Suits Anyone Fine, was released in 1997 to immediate success and critical acclaim in Europe. Soon afterwards, the band signed with the Swedish label Speech Records, and over the next two years released three further singles, "Face Wet", "Oh Darling!" and "Nothing Yet". In 1999, Sahara Hotnights released their debut studio album C'mon Let's Pretend, which earned two Grammis nominations.
I find it to be a bit shocking that this album (after five votes) has such a low rating. I agree there is nothing essential or very original about it. The quality of the songs is quite ok though. And the album is full of energetic, up-tempo and catchy melodic rock songs. An album full of "I Love Rock 'n Roll" (Joan Jett) like bangers can't be a bad thing.
Annoyingly not on spotify but after listening to it, it's not really anything special. It's perfect fine modern rock but nothing I would actively seek out.
My personal rating: 3/5
My rating relative to the list: 3/5
Should this have been included on the original list? No.
This was a decent listen, but didn't leave a huge impact. Not sure why this is a must-listen before you die, would've opted for Ex Hex or Bikini Kill (who I still cannot believe aren't on the main 1001) if we're going for notable woman-only bands.
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