Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Track Listings
| 1. No Wow |
| 2. Love Is A Deserter |
| 3. Dead Road 7 |
| 4. The Good Ones |
| 5. I Hate The Way You Love |
| 6. I Hate The Way You Love Part 2 |
| 7. At The Back Of The Shell |
| 8. Sweet Cloud |
| 9. Rodeo Town |
| 10. Murdermile |
| 11. Ticket Man |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Born out of a transatlantic writing partnership that saw Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince – aka VV and Hotel – exchange tapes via airmail, it perhaps makes sense that The Kills should be a thing of meticulous care and economy. Second album No Wow is perhaps even more stripped and lean than its predecessor, 2003's Keep On Your Mean Side, peeling back the skin on tracks like "Dead Road 7" and "At The Back Of The Shell" to reveal little more than the propulsive hiss of a drum machine, the looming, shark-like presence of Hotel's fuzzed-out guitar, and the pair's drawled, alley-cat vocals. Sonically, there's clear comparisons to be drawn to PJ Harvey's 2004 album, Uh Huh Her: both trawl through the waters of doomed romance and pitch-black blues, both are aware that sometimes less is more. And although some rock fans may prefer a little more meat on their musical bones, as a daring experiment to strip the genre down to its bleached skeleton, No Wow succeeds just fine. --Louis Pattison
Product Description
THE KILLS No Wow (2005 UK Domino label 12-track CD album including 20-page picture sleeve booklet with lyrics The second album from the London based duo recorded in just three months in the sleepy town of Benton Harbour Michigan this releasesees the band continue with the stripped back indie rock sound of their acclaimed debut Keep On Your Mean Side taking inspiration from their quick rise into the media spotlight WIGCD149)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
First things first, please, please, please ignore any comparisons of this band to the White Stripes, they're not lazy comparisons, they're just wrong. I'm a huge fan of the Stripes for their individuality, and that's perhaps the only similarity between these bands. Apart from that, they're not at all alike. The Kills are fantastic because of their simplicity. Whilst the modern Indie scene is overrun by style and lacking in substance, drowning in image, narrative, souless solos and pointless recycling of music, the Kills ride high above all of this.
Their music is condensed yet sparse, some recorded on eight-track, some recorded on two-track. The drum beats are often repetitive stacattos, the guitar, sometimes so raw and primal as to be pure noise, and the vocals, are spiteful, viscious but sexy.
The album opens with 'No Wow', an attack on the unispiring and unoriginal media that we have nowadays, a stuttering skipping drum beat, along with nasty guitar and vocals, builds to a fantastic crescendo. The closer 'Ticket Man', a simple plonking piano piece, stands as a rant against the mess of modernity. Everything else in between contains hissing, thundering drum beats, dual vocals, and distorted messed-up guitar. The second half of the album suffers from not quite reaching the height of the first, but it's all good. Play it loud, and smile when the guitar on 'I Hate The Way You Love' rips through your speakers.
If you like this, then also get their debut album, it's even better. Ultimately, if you don't get this album, read an interview with the band, or see them live. If you still don't get them, head down to the Top 50 section in Woolworths.
Their music is condensed yet sparse, some recorded on eight-track, some recorded on two-track. The drum beats are often repetitive stacattos, the guitar, sometimes so raw and primal as to be pure noise, and the vocals, are spiteful, viscious but sexy.
The album opens with 'No Wow', an attack on the unispiring and unoriginal media that we have nowadays, a stuttering skipping drum beat, along with nasty guitar and vocals, builds to a fantastic crescendo. The closer 'Ticket Man', a simple plonking piano piece, stands as a rant against the mess of modernity. Everything else in between contains hissing, thundering drum beats, dual vocals, and distorted messed-up guitar. The second half of the album suffers from not quite reaching the height of the first, but it's all good. Play it loud, and smile when the guitar on 'I Hate The Way You Love' rips through your speakers.
If you like this, then also get their debut album, it's even better. Ultimately, if you don't get this album, read an interview with the band, or see them live. If you still don't get them, head down to the Top 50 section in Woolworths.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Get over White Stripes comparisons, the nearest comparison is PJ Harvey. So, if you like the more upbeat PJ Harvey, like me then you will love this album (and their previous album).
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I was very very anxious when this album came out. Their first album, Keep on your Mean Side, was easily the best debut of 2003, an album that, throughout the last year and a half, had never strayed too far away from stereo. I'd have walked barefoot through hell for these two.
My expectations were raised further by a review in the NME which gave the album 5/10, seemingly because it wasn't "commercial" enough -- fantastic I thought.
And disappointed I was not. The Kills have perfected the art of stripping a mixture of blues, post-punk and garage rock down its bare, blissful essentials. The opener, No Wow, is a barren desert of sound, populated only by repeated phrases and guitar riffs, and an endlessly chattering drum machine. Dead Road 7 is a bizarre start-stop slab of fuzzy blues rock, the song hangs permanently on the edge of something, but tantalisingly never quite gets there.
Perhaps the highlight of the album is Rodeo Town, somewhat of a departure for the duo, similar to Wait on Keep on Your Mean Side, a bubbling stew of ambiguous American passion, with a pinch of Sonic Youth and the Velvet Underground.
It is denser, darker and perhaps more difficult than Keep on Your Mean side, the album which I recommend starting with if your new to this band, but shares much of the same hollow darkness, and moments of extreme brilliance.
I cannot describe just how much you need this band in your life right now.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Late night drug beat blues
There I was on Sat night coming home from a drink and toot evening with some spare energy on my hands before head down. Read more
Published on 21 Sep 2005 by Colonel Kurtz
A Slap In The Face . . .
Wow. And really, really wow, not just 'cos it's like the album's name. This one's a stunner. No Wow is the sort of album that after one listen might not impress much. Read more
Published on 12 April 2005
No Wow - but still very good
This album is a good, solid follow up to the debut keep on your mean side. However on first listening it is not as good, this album is no doubt a grower, the more you hear it the... Read more
Published on 3 April 2005
Very good...but fails to capture the live experience
I first got turned on to the Kills after seeing them support Primal Scream a couple of years ago - their on stage chemistry, dirty blues riffs and stripped down sound hitting all... Read more
Published on 15 Mar 2005 by Michael
Good, but ...
OK, so I don't listen to the radio or watch music tv anymore, so I took a chance on this record on the strength of a short review read quickly in a free paper. Read more
Published on 8 Mar 2005 by Tuesday Jones
Wow.
It starts with a beat, slowing growing in a pulsating monster with no climax. The title track 'No Wow' engulfs anyone who listens to it, taking control of the body making you... Read more
Published on 20 Feb 2005 by Dominic L. Morris
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
