For the second album in a row, we have a record from the mid-oughts.
Disc 1847 is…Midnight Boom
Artist: The Kills
Year of Release: 2008
What’s up with the Cover? I hope this is one of those “you sometimes have to make a mess to clean up” situations and the bed is not always strewn with this much junk. Like they are just reorganizing the photo albums or scrapbooking and we’ve caught them halfway done.
If so one of the photos I would toss out is the one that was chosen for this album cover, which is poorly framed and fills me with a desire to run out of the room and wash my hands.
How I Came To Know It: By way of another band - the Dead Weather - which also features Kills’ singer Alison Mosshart, back in 2011. I then dug backward into their catalogue and came upon this little gem.
How It Stacks Up: I have four Kills albums (I once had six). Of the four that remain, it is a dead heat between Midnight Boom” and “Blood Pressures” for second. Since I don’t do dead heats in this section, I’ll give the win to “Blood Pressures” by the narrowest of margins, dropping “Midnight Boom” to third. Competition at the top is fierce.
And because this is my last Kills album, here is the full accounting, including #5 and #6 that are part of the review experience, but no longer part of the collection:
- Keep On Your Mean Side: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 324)
- Blood Pressures: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 788)
- Midnight Boom: 4 stars (reviewed right here)
- No Wow: 3
stars (reviewed at Disc 795)
- God Games: 2
stars (reviewed at Disc 1715)
- Ash & Ice: 2
stars (reviewed at Disc 989)
Ratings: 4 stars
Some music sounds a little rough around the edges, but the Kills’ “Midnight Boom” does rough right the way through, only letting you up for breath when it knows you can appreciate the gesture. This record is grimy and glorious like ripped blue jeans and a faded leather jacket, looking cool but making you feel like you need a shower.
The core of this record is the blues, and the crunch of Jamie Hince’s guitar and Mosshart’s caterwaul vocals will reach down and grab you by the cockles. There isn’t anything complicated going on, and if anything the magic of “Midnight Boom” is the simplicity of the individual components, laid out bare and played with maximize grit.
The band is only a duo, but they dig deep into their bag of tricks to generate maximum thump. It helps that Mosshart has a classic rock voice in the style of Janis Joplin or Robert Plant, generating all kinds of twist and torque with her delivery.
The production also makes great decisions, adding in every manner of percussion option you can imagine. Sometimes just the guitar played for maximum beat, sometimes a bit of actual drum (presumably Hince on an overdub) and sometimes artful hand claps. Despite all these extra bells and whistles nothing feels artificial.
To ask what the songs on “Midnight Boom” are about is to ask the wrong question. Half of them are under three minutes long and nothing is longer than four – no time to generate multiple verses spinning complex themes or layered tales. Instead you get just enough time to establish a very cool groove mixed with some artful phrases that Mosshart manages to infuse with deeper and more profound meaning than they deserve.
After you’re fully immersed in the crunch of songs like “U.R.A. Fever” and “Tape Song” you are ready – softened up for – the album’s quieter moody pieces like “Black Balloon” and “Goodnight Bad Morning.” You wouldn’t have appreciated them at the front end, but now they give the record depth and variety and a little space to breathe.
“Goodnight Bad Morning” is a standout and coming last on the record, feels like a palate cleanser. Gone are the tortured thumps and barking guitars, replaced with Hince playing light and gentle. Mosshart sings soft as an angel, but don’t expect harps and beatific inspiration. More like that angel from Revelations, cradling your head in her lap and providing much needed succor after having poured all that blood in the river earlier.
It’s the calm after the storm but don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world this time. It’s just rock and roll, baby.
Best tracks: U.R.A. Fever, Cheap and Cheerful, Tape Song, Black Balloon, What New York Used to Be, Goodnight Bad Morning
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