Today I shook off a months-long torpor and got out for a lunchtime run. As a result of listening time while out on the trail and some extra driving time on the weekend, I got through this next record surprisingly fast.
Disc 1715 is…God Games
Artist: The Kills
Year of Release: 2023
What’s up with the Cover? Bullfight!
Is a bullfight a ‘god game’? I would’ve thought gods were more likely to play chess, or maybe wrestling or drinking contests for those Norse gods. Of all the gods, the Norse gods seem to have the best time up there in Valhalla. Except for the daily mortal combat, with all the stabbing and what-not. I think that part would get old. They might want to work a board game night in there once in a while to give everyone a rest.
But I digress.
How I Came To Know It: I’m a Kills fan from way back, and for the second straight time I bought their record when it came out, hoping I’d like it. For the second straight time I was disappointed.
How It Stacks Up: I have five Kills albums, and that’s because I got rid of the sixth, which was 2016’s “Ash & Ice” (reviewed back at Disc 989). “God Games” was better than “Ash & Ice” but not by a lot. I put it in fifth spot.
Rating: 2 stars
The Kills keep taking longer and longer to release new music, but it doesn’t seem to be helping the quality any. It was five years before they released “Ash & Ice” and for “God Games” it was seven more. Neither record benefits from the delay.
That’s a nasty lede, and mostly because I very much love the Kills first four albums and therefore expect more from them. Sure, this makes me that hipster douchebag who prefers a band’s “early work” but it doesn’t make me wrong.
So what is it about this record that didn’t get me there? Well, it starts with the production, which sounds like it has forgotten the mid-range. In my car’s boomin’ system, this caused the doors to vibrate with bass. Yes, my car has more oomph than it has acoustic design to accommodate it, but even so, too many things were rattling and some of those things were my vertebrae.
OK, not all albums are meant for the car, but clever readers will recall I ALSO listened to this record while out running, which is an earbud/Walkman arrangement. That is an environment that is overall very kind to all production decisions. Here the thump was gone, but everything felt tinny. Again, no mid-range. I admit I’m a bit of a mid-range junkie, but not usually to the point that I’m spewing 200 words over it.
Structurally, the songs are a mix of blues riffs and experimental percussion. Lots of reverb, and thump. Many feel like a few disparate ideas artfully connected to one another. I say artfully, because the Kills are very good at what they do, and it would do them a disservice to say the result is noise. It is very deliberate in what it is doing. I admired it frequently through my listens, but in the end, I still landed short of the emotional investment I needed.
So what is good about the record? Plenty of things. Firstly those clever syncopated connections of different sounds is cool and when held together with a bit of melody like on “103” the result is both beautiful and groovy. “My Girls My Girls” is another winner, with an almost sixties pop vibe, that features hand claps and some church choir vibes near the end.
The other compelling thing about this record (and all Kills records) is Alison Mosshart’s voice. It is best showcased on the stripped-down heartbreaker, “Blank” but good on every tune, even the lesser ones. Tough as nails and riding an emotional torque so tight you think she’s going to snap the axel, she never does. Mosshart sings like a 1968 Camaro – fast, reckless and undeniably beautiful.
Alas, while those good things earn this record a solid couple of stars, and likely a deserving home in someone’s music collection, that music collection won’t be mine. There’re just too many other great Kills records elbowing each other for space on the shelves already. So I will reluctantly part company with “God Games” and, having been twice bitten, vow to listen to the next Kills album before I decide if I’m going to buy it.
Best tracks: 103, My Girls My Girls, Blank
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