Midnight Boom

Stylish, sexy, and simple, the nouveau-garage clatter of the Kills has magnificently sat on a line between base and brilliant. They've traded in a bluesy, overdriven sleaze that's served many a duo well in recent years, blurring the edges between their tandem vocals, staccato guitars, and vintage drum machines. On albums such as Keep on Your Mean Side (2003) and No Wow (2005), they managed to take a classic rock template and turn it into something more modern and audibly dangerous. Midnight Boom pushes those edges even further, and has its own kind of swagger that stands apart from anything they've done so far. Despite hammering on its titular phrase like it's a lip gloss for sale, opener "U.R.A. Fever" manages to sound like an XTRMNTR outtake that substitutes seduction for violence, with a slinky backbeat made from equal parts purring bass and jarring phone noise.

Full Review | More Reviews from Publication | Top Rated of 2008