Heads Are Gonna Roll by The Hippos

Heads Are Gonna Roll, the second album by Los Angeles band the Hippos, came out on Interscope in 1999, their first record for a major label and the one that took them furthest. Mark Trombino produced, and the band, fronted by singer and guitarist Ariel Rechtshaid with a horn section of trombones and trumpet still in the lineup, used the jump to shed its skin.

Where their debut Forget the World was built on ska, this one dials the upstrokes way down and plugs in the synthesizers, landing on bright, wiry pop-rock with the horns as color rather than engine. They even rework "Far Behind" from the first album, and "Wasting My Life" picked up some rock radio play in the States. The cover tips its hat to the Animals' self-titled album. It was their last proper album as a working band; they quietly split, and The Hippos followed posthumously in 2003.

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