As I sit here writing this review
there is a professional cleaner in my house cleaning my kitchen and bathroom,
and vacuuming and tidying my living room. If you have never had someone else
clean your house, it is pretty wonderful. If you have had someone else clean
your house for years, then take a minute right now to reflect about how truly
awesome that is, and how lucky you are.
OK – on to the review.
Disc 989 is…Ash & Ice
Artist: The Kills
Year of Release: 2016
What’s up with the Cover? Two of the coolest things that
involve ash and ice: a volcano and a martini. Personally, I prefer my martini
with a twist of lemon over an olive, but a martini is a martini.
As for
my volcanoes, I prefer them dormant when I’m climbing around on them and furiously
erupting with lava when I am a safe distance away. Perspective is everything.
How I Came To Know It: I have been a fan of the Kills
for years, so this was just me buying their new album on faith when it came
out.
How It Stacks Up: I have all five of the Kills’ studio albums.
Of those five I must reluctantly put “Ash & Ice” in last – and not just
because of the use of the ampersand in the title (although that never helps).
Ratings: 2 stars
“Ash
& Ice” sees the Kills add a bit of eighties reverb and drum machine to
their signature garage rock sound. While I liked that the band is growing their
sound a little, the result didn’t appeal to me as much as their earlier
records.
As with
many of their records, the Kills are a band that make garage music where the
beat is king. Groovy drum licks define most of the songs, and while the guitar
makes the sound flower, it is the rhythm section that is the vase that holds
everything together.
It helps
to have Alison Mosshart on lead vocals. Her bluesy growl drives the energy of
the songs at the top end and she has a sixth sense for knowing when to cut
loose and when to just let the groove flow for a while. While she almost always
settles down in the middle of the pocket she does it in a way that makes you
feel like she’s restless, and ready to break out at any moment. It is this
rebellious tension that gives these relatively basic songs the energy they need
to thrive.
In
places on “Ash & Ice” Mosshart adopts a bit more of a pop sensibility, with
some sweetness creeping into her tone. This is evident on both the opening
track “Doing it to Death” and the
final one, “Whirling Eye”.
Both those
songs have heavy eighties New Wave influences, as well as some drumbeats that
sounded suspiciously artificial. If they weren’t made on a drum machine, they
were made with the sound a drum machine in mind. I am not a fan of the drum
machine.
Both also
have coquettish “oh oh oh” singing in the background that would be more at home
on a Kylie Minogue album. I have nothing against Kylie Minogue – she’s pretty
cool, actually – but that kind of production in the middle of a Kills album
felt out of place. Worse, the artificiality at the front of some of the songs
made my ear start picking it out on other tracks where it is more in the
background, reducing my enjoyment of those ones as well.
The
Kills have always had a talent for heartbreaking ballads on otherwise rocking
albums, and “Ash & Ice” delivers a good one with “That Love.” A stripped down song featuring a lone piano and
Mosshart giving the sad news:
“It’s over now
It’s over now
That love you’re in
Is all fucked up.”
It is
heartbreaking and unlike a lot of singers, Mosshart knows how to use a swear word
with the right mix of vitriol and casualness that is the key to making such
words work. Swear like you mean it, but also like you’ve done it before. “That Love” is a powerful and raw song
and was almost enough all on its own for me to keep this record. Almost.
The
other strong track, “Heart of a Dog”
is vintage Kills, with its pounding beat, sparse riffs and reverb. This song
has a bit of techno-drum at the beginning, but it quickly develops into a
ballsy rock song, layering three or four complementary riffs that cycle around
like sharks in chum-filled water.
Sadly,
the album is too much chum and not enough shark. A lot of the other tracks made
me wishing I could put on an early Kills album that was a bit more raw and
real. This isn’t a bad album, but I had to ask myself how often I was going to
play it. Even when I am keen to hear the Kills when I go to that section of the
collection, will I pull out “Ash & Ice” or will my hand pass over it and
land instead on “Keep on Your Mean Side” or “Blood Pressures”. Probably the
latter.
Add in
the backdrop of a quickly diminishing amount of space to store all this damned
music (yes, I cling stubbornly to physical media) and I need to make tough
decisions. Today’s tough decision is to part with “Ash & Ice” and send it
on to a good home only sixth months after I welcomed it into mine.
Best
tracks: Heart of
a Dog, That Love, Impossible Tracks
No comments:
Post a Comment