Chain Gang of Love [Import]

Raveonettes | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 28, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Sony / Bmg Japan
• ASIN: B00009WKYL
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,196,974 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Remember

2. That Great Love Sound

3. Noisy Summer

4. The Love Gang

5. Let's Rave On

6. Dirty Eyes (Sex Don't Sell)

7. Love Can Destroy Everything

8. Heartbreak Stroll

9. Little Animal

10. Untamed Girls

11. Chain Gang of Love

12. The Truth About Johnny

13. New York Was Great

Editorial Reviews

Japanese edition of the Danish garage rock duo's 2003 album has earliest release & features 14 tracks including one exclusive bonus track, a version of Eddie Cochran's 'C'mon Everybody'. Sony.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This cd rocks!, September 20, 2003

By 

Erica Anderson (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chain Gang of Love (Audio CD)

I don't care what other reviewers have said about "Chain Gang of Love". The first full-length album by The Raveonettes rocks. I was at Borders this morning and I was curious to hear this cd. So I listened to a few tracks on one of the listening stations at Borders. Man! I was hooked right from the word go! Normally I am not into this so-called movement of the "The" bands (i.e The Strokes, The Hives, The Vines, etc...etc...) but this is different. Unlike the aforementioned bands, The Raveonettes manage to incorporate some infectious hooks into their music. I am not big on the whole distorted, fuzzed guitar sound but I thought it really works with The Raveonettes. The second I heard "Remember" my jaw literally dropped. When I listened to a sample of "The Great Love Sound", I was hooked. "Noisy Summer" made me want to buy the cd. Normally my musical tastes leans more towards the darker side lyrically and musically but I thought "Chain Gang of Love" was a half hour bliss of pure joy. It has a very retro sound, very Link Wray-ish, Buddy Holly-ish sound. After listening to "Chain Gang of Love", I am officially now a fan of The Raveonettes. They definitely are one of the best rock bands I have heard in a long time.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly fresh, original, and excellent rock and roll, September 23, 2003

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chain Gang of Love (Audio CD)

In recent years, I have more and more been struck by how moribund and uninspired much American rock and roll has been. Not that we are completely without first rate performers, but for the most part the freshness and originality has gone out of the music. Lately, however, I have been increasingly amazed by how many European bands are playing flat out awesome and fundamental rock and roll. I had been wondering if rock was dying, but now I'm wondering if we might not be in the midst of a quiet and modest European invasion that just might revitalize and save American music. Thanks to bands like the Hives and the Hellacoptors and the Raveonettes, this might be happening this very second.

I find every song on the album to be fascinating in the extreme. Every song seems to be the distillation of two or three great songs from the past. The title cut, for instance, sounds like a reworking of Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang" with Mickey and Sylvia's "Love is Strange." At various times on the album they remind me of a strange blend of the Primitives, Blondie, the Ramones, and My Bloody Valentine, all filtered through Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. Between Sune Rose Wagner's fuzz tortured guitar riffs and Sharin Foo's pure, sweet vocals, the Raveonettes sound like no other band on the planet.

This is by no means one of the great albums one will encounter. But anyone tired of the more recent offerings in rock and who wants to experience music about which its makers are obviously passionate about, this is definitely worth checking out. It is fresh, innovative, and incredibly original, and that is at least part of what rock and roll is all about.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Let's Rave On Cause I Know That You Want It, September 2, 2003

By 

Benjamin W. Olson (Fort Walton Beach, FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chain Gang of Love (Audio CD)

For a band like the Raveonettes, the second record is crucial. Their first release, Whip It On (a must-have, by the way), was thickly coated in buzz and hype, and the band's self-imposed rules for recording it (three minutes and three chords per song, no high hat, and all songs to be written in B-flat minor) were much publicized. The challenge for the Raveos with Chain Gang of Love, then, is knowing how much to change. Change too much, and you lose what people have come to think of as your "sound." Change too little, and it's a rehash.

I'm happy to report that Sune and Sharin have nailed it; no sophomore slump here. The duo mostly retained their restrictions for this effort--you're not likely to hear more than four chords in a song, and few of them break the three-minute mark. The most noticeable difference is the switch from B-flat minor to B-flat major. Where Whip It On was a dark, driving meditation on beat mythology, Chain Gang explores the soda-pop musical conventions of the 1950s with relentless delight. The result is both greater musical complexity (the major key allows Sune and Sharin's vocal harmonies to broaden) and increased thematic subtlety (the tunes are bubbly but still menacing, thanks to healthy doses of the Raveos' signature mechanical noise and Sune's beat-youth lyrics).

Listeners who thought Whip It On was too much like one long song will be somewhat appeased by Chain Gang; it's still one key, but the songs differ from each other much more in terms of tempo and instrumentation than did the songs on Whip It On. There's even a song in triple meter ("The Truth About Johnny").

As with Whip It On (and just about any rock that's worth listening to nowadays), it's on your second listen that you'll really start to dig Chain Gang of Love. But once you do, it'll stick with you; you'll find yourself singing "know my heart's black cause I gotta go" all day long.

What makes the Raveonettes so special, even in the context of all the other great new bands emerging recently, is their unique vision. There are plenty of rock bands drawing inspiration from the blues (the White Stripes, the Kills, the Von Bondies, etc.) and the 1980s (Interpol, the Sounds, even the Dandy Warhols on their latest album), and they're all killer bands. But the Raveos' 21st-century riff on Buddy Holly, Jack Kerouac, motorcycle gangs and girl groups, is really unusual and delicious...Chain Gang of Love is definitely worth your time and money. Highly recommended.