Search - The Kills :: Midnight Boom

"You got to go steal a head!"--?! -- My Favorite Album of 20

Rich Latta | Albuquerque, NM - Land of Entitlement | 12/17/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is so crazy-cool, so crazy-catchy it hurts! The songs are simple and fun and the lyrics are crazy-fun too. Alison Mosshart is a very charismatic singer and drummer/guitarist/vocalist Jamie Hence has a real knack for hooky songwriting - they both do! I wasn't completely sold on this band at first but they totally won me over on this album with its quirky electronic touches, rockin beats and hooky melodies.



Breakdown!



"U.R.A. Fever" - starts off really laid-back with sluggish/cool vocals and soon becomes a steady, swaggering minimalist beat with electronic injections and phone noises. "Laughing like a seagull" - ?! LTM "We are a fever/ We ain't born typical" - so true! ****1/4



"Cheap And Cheerful" - "I want you to be crazy cuz yer boring baby when you are straight" - the album picks up the pace with this great beat and sexy vocals from Mosshart. ****1/2



"Tape Song" - "You got to go steel ahead!" . . . sometimes the lyrics you think you hear are even cooler than the real ones. Quirky, jerky and mechanical, this is neo-New Wave heaven. Mosshart blasts it way over the top! *****+



"Getting Down" - Jamie takes the lead vocal on this groover with subtle, down-tuned acoustic guitar chugging along to an insistent drum beat and "uh-uh-uh-uh-oww-owws." ****



"Last Day of Magic" - the grooviest, most addictive song of the bunch. Great guitar, love the chord changes. "A little tornado/ A little hurricane-o" . . . love the way they just sing whatever the F they want. *****+



"Hook & Line" - one of the heaviest cuts. Full of distorted guitar, it's a decent song but far from the best. ***1/4



"Black Balloon" - a mellower tune and one of the album's best melodies. Interesting percussion and a heavenly "middle 8." *****



"M.E.X.I.C.O." - Kicks off with some clangy, abrasive guitar, this one's punky and pumped full of energy, plus it's punk rock short. ***3/4



"Sour Cherry" - "Am I the only sour cheery on your fruit stand?" Tons of creative percussion sounds (which is pretty much true of all these songs). Love the way they have a blast throwing around all these nonesense vocals. ***3/4



"Alphabet Pony" - This one annoyed me a little when I first heard it (as did a few others) but I'm into it now. Love the squelchy synth bass (or whatever's making those bass lines). ****



"What New York Used To Be" - a wigged-out synth intro morphs into a super-catchy tune with Mosshart rattling off some fast-paced lyrics until she laments about what love/art/drugs/T.V./etc. used to be. This track is totally addictive! *****+



"Goodnight Bad Morning" - the mellowest tune here with acoustic guitar, spare percussion, spare piano and some stray electric guitar. A sweet album closer. ****1/4"

What music used to be...

Robert Barrera | St. Petersburg, Florida United States | 03/11/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I call this music "primitive punk" (my lame attempt to coin a genre).

No Beatles or Miles Davis break through here, but the best thing since. "What New York used to be" is the perfect song that opens new territory in the genre of modern pop rock with that undefineable edge that makes it all worthwile."

Favorite band

MATTHEW | New Providence, NJ USA | 01/01/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Boom goes the bass in this one. I love blasting my stereo to it. The Kills are a genius rock band and this album shows their power. The guys from the U.K., she's American, and now she's in an even better band Horehound"