Whatever the band is singing about has undoubtedly left its mark on their music. Outside of the tremendous growl summoned up in DNA, they don’t sound as armour-plated as previous.
Whatever the band is singing about has undoubtedly left its mark on their music. Outside of the tremendous growl summoned up in DNA, they don’t sound as armour-plated as previous.
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Now this is something else; a record that has a fair amount of emotional and sonic whack. We’ve always liked the Kills, they always bring something different, and more importantly, something of their own, to pop’s table. They have a powerful presence, and whatever angle you approach them or their music (indeed, whether you like them or not), you should be in no doubt they have a swagger born from a degree of intelligence.
I always believe a good band can create their own timeline; and that they don’t need to hang around for anybody. This is immediately apparent on Future Starts Slow, which is a classic track, brim-full of swagger and hung out to dry on the simplest of guitar lines. Elsewhere I don’t hear much of the breathlessness and grit they are noted for; there seems to be a lot of soul searching going on. The lugubrious plod of Satellite (bizarrely enough) reminds me of Scott Walker’s Time Operator – no, I agree, they sound nothing like each other, but they both sound like a slightly bitter, rueful chronicling of some emotional defeat along the line. There’s a lot of that on Blood Pressures. Whatever the band is singing about has undoubtedly left its mark on their music. Outside of the tremendous growl summoned up in DNA, they don’t sound as armour-plated as previous.
The sound is suppler too: there are lots of samples, keyboards, tracks hung up on beats, things “squidged up” and shoved about. Nail in My Coffin has a lot going on in it including I think, a cello. There’s also a smack of psychedelia with Wild Charms, the track comes on like In Another Land or Jugband Blues. And the spirit of Cinderella Rockerfella is being channelled in Last Goodbye, (only joking)… It’s also a bloody groovy record; we’ve mentioned DNA, elsewhere, Baby Says is a cruising song par excellence, Pots and Pans is a powerful rain dance, and You Don’t Own The Road is a bastardisation of Roxy’s Love is The Drug, I swear.
Possibly their best record to date and that’s saying something.