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Review: Jack Foley
FANS of the rough, ready and raw style of The White Stripes and
PJ Harvey's last album, Uh
Huh Her, ought to flock to The Kills' latest, which follows
along in a similarly hard-edged manner.
Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince – aka VV and Hotel - have
set out to put the wow-factor back into music and their no-nonsense
style is evidence of a band that is growing in confidence all
the time.
Tracks such as album opener, No Wow, and former single,
The Good Ones, display a growing confidence in all that
they have to offer - which is fairly basic but worthy of attention
nonetheless.
Indeed, it could be argued that No Wow is even more
stripped down than their previous effort, Keep On Your Mean
Side, which really helped to get them noticed in the first
place.
It deals with similar themes - love and loss - but takes the
gritty blues-rock even further to deliver an achingly personal
record that is sure to appeal to music fans who like their stuff
raw and exposed.
Their writing, in particular, is rife with growing ambition.
The Good Ones, for instance, is adapted from
a Kills diary entry, and catalogues the craving for and consequent
desperate pursuit of that elusive good time.
With its nod to late 70’s New York, when the hedonism
and excess of disco eclipsed a thriving punk scene, The Good
Ones is clearly designed to evoke thoughts of Studio 54 in
its heyday, with a message that's relevant today.
Jamie's fuzzed-up riffs and the repetitive disco beats of their
drum machine also set the tone for Love Is A Deserter,
another striking effort that's rife with emotive lyrics and a
distinct vocal turn from Alison, sounding more and more like PJ
Harvey in her prime.
Not everything comes off, however, and anyone who likes their
music to be polished and slickly produced is sure to feel uneasy
with the album's in-yer-face style.
Certain tracks become overly repetitive as well, both in terms
of sound and lyrics, allowing it to fall prey to accusations of
a certain laziness.
I Hate The Way You Love, parts one and two, being a
prime example of the band at their most tiresome (although they
might argue artistically extravagant!).
But it's difficult to be too critical given the quality of other
tracks, such as the more restrained At The Back of the Shell
and the blues-heavy Rodeo Town, which features Alison's
vocals at their finest.
Indeed, when they take their foot off the pedal, the album delivers
its biggest Wow factor. But it's certainly a worthy follow-up
from a very promising band.
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