Sex punk garage blues duo The Kills took their already raw, handmade sound to tighter, meaner and darker places on their second album, 2005's No Wow. From ominous opening drum sputter of the title track through the bleak piano stomp of "Ticket Man," the album is an unforgiving, focused and relentless surge of Jamie "Hote" Hince's honed electric guitar chaos, bubbling like a poison potion beneath Alison "VV" Mosshart's breathy, dangerous tales of late night hook-ups, back alley deals, cigarette burns and alcohol soaked daydreams. The duo's breakthrough, 2008's Midnight Boom, would later pull their pop tendencies to the surface, somewhat unfairly overshadowing the unadulterated rock 'n' roll grrr of this album, arguably their purest (and certainly their leanest/meanest) album to date.
Jamie "Hotel" Hince and Alison "VV" Mosshart
Using Spotify? Listen to No Wow in its entirety right here.
"No Wow"
"You're gonna have to step over my dead body before you walk out that door," Alison purrs ominously over the most menacing slow burn since PJ Harvey's "Rid Of Me." Jamie's minimal, low-end guitar riffs is a barely-there bass chug, building slowly into a violet climax of power chord crunch and drum machine stomp.
"Telephone Radio Germany"
A little bit of late-night-and-bored tape collage. "Reach out for it!"
"Love Is A Deserter"
Jamie kicks off this persistent cruncher with a gnarled, ugly six string stab, settling down into a groove over a hissing high-hat drum groove, cooing, "Get the guns out, get the guns out" beneath Alison's sex-as-murder-as-sex lyrics. Dare you not to snarl along around the 2:05 mark.
"Dead Road 7"
"This dead road leads down to that dead road and back," hums a knowing Alison over Jamie's subdued guitar chunk. "Dead road 7 is a bitch," she sneers, "Floating belly flush, floating belly up." Don't breath too deep during this one—you might catch some of that roadside carrion stench. Fair warning.
"The Good Ones"
Jamie's fuzz pedal guitar billows over the "Only Happy When It Rains" drum loop, doubling Alison's lead vocals ("My little sister's eyes so wide / they must have been the size of the city moon tonight") and tumbling grittily beneath a faux-bleep-bloop chorus melody.
"I Hate The Way You Love"
All choppy, reverb-soaked electric guitar teeth, gnashing and chewing the scenery beneath Alison and Jamie's desperation ("I can't get full / please could you take my shakes /and would you hold them still") like a little Tasmanian devil with a detuned Telecaster…
"I Hate The Way You Love Pt. 2"
…Spills over into a dreamy, Velvet Underground style outro. A little bit of sunshine through the album's black cloud—don't get used to it.
"At The Back Of The Shell"
Hand claps. Stuttering guitar riffs. "You'll never get to heaven with your shirt all tore." It starts at the back of the Shell and, well, it ain't such a thrill. Jamie and Alison's vocal interplay borders on, dare I say it, playful… but that wartime telegraph guitar spit keeps things on the fringe.
"Sweet Cloud"
See? I told you there was a black cloud! Alison upsets the weather over a growler of a bassline, rolling over itself atop a stomp/hat groove and short-leashed guitar licks. "Lost a lot of blood, lost a lot of cool cool cool…"
"Rodeo Town"
Sigh, can't even deal with this song. "If I'm so evil, why are you so satisfied?" Alison does a little open-heart self-surgery over a spacious guitar strum and the rattlesnake hiss of a lonely tambourine. "I caught the gun, but you made me set it down…" Don't read me talking about it… just listen.
"Murdermile"
Jamie's aggro, claw your face of guitar comes snarling right out of the gate. His sneak-up-behind-you lead vocal break ranks high on the album's list of sexiest/spookiest moments ("It's a train wreck / You got me on the wrong track, honey / It's piling up one by one…").
"Ticket Man"
"Here's the ticket / What's the problem? / Too many tickets is the problem, man…" Floats up into the air like a wisp of fresh cigarette smoke, curling back into itself before sucking back down into Alison's throat. A dream-like, unsettling end to an album filled to the brim with confrontation and contradiction. "It's a little too easy to always be kind / But the longer it takes, the more you must find…"
Have a favorite song from or memory of The Kills' No Wow? Get the conversation started in our comments section below.
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