Customer Reviews

No Wow

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

So a guy and a girl want to make music and they get slammed for ripping off White Stripes. Come on.

I am enjoying this CD more than about any this year. Her voice is odd and compelling and compliments the jagged, hard driving minimalistic guitar work like nothing I've heard in awhile.

I don't care if they use drum machines. They do it better and more creatively than REM did it when their drummer called it quits. Drummers are probably hard to find and then you have to pay them and haul around all their equipment. (Besides if I had a lead singer that looked like her I would say, "No, no. We don't need anybody else. Not even a roadie. Just, ah, you and me, wink, okay?"

Seriously though. This is a great album from a band that hopefully will keep cranking it out. Jack White may have called attention to this raw, garage-like approach to music but a group like the Kills are extending this approach in their own unique direction.

It's refreshing, the lyrics are clever and interesting, and it has a hard-rocking, bluesy edge to it that makes for many and many quality listens.

(And yeah, she sounds like PJ Harvey. I have no problem with that. Hey we are what we eat. That's better than sounding like Stevie Nicks)

Author of:
A Bottle of Rain
Nowhere Near the Sea of Cortez

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. Then you listen again, and again, and it quickly becomes a favourite. Or at least it has for me.

Having heard 4 or 5 of the album tracks already, I knew what to expect. But I really isn't until you listen to the whole album that you hear such songs as lead single 'The Good Ones' and forthcoming single 'Love Is A Deserter', in context, at their best. Every song literally bristles with sexiness, with tension, as VV's moaning, strained vocals hover perfectly matched to Hotel's fuzzy guitar. Surely, if ever there was a match made in heaven, this was it.

It's an album on which you have to take a long, long time to choose stand out tracks. For me, it's the songs where VV really lets loose, where you hear what she can really do with that voice of hers. On 'Rodeo Town', the most calm and, in my opinion, most beautiful, of all the album's songs, VV's vocals are gorgeous, the song itself is amazing. 'Sweet Cloud' is notable for its particularly bitter chorus 'I know no words to fix my killing, but I'd do anything to bring my brother alive', and its nagging hook, that will absolutely stick in your head for days.

Now I've only mentioned the end half of the album so far, where the beginning is equally as good. The first 5 songs are just full of tension, the sort of pent up rock music that just makes you wanna pick up a guitar, or have sex, or drink, a lot. Something extreme anyway. As a record's beginning, they really knock you for six. Single 'The Good Ones' is the singular most sex-filled song I've ever known, it just bristles with energy, and it's dark lyrics really shine amongst The Kills' other babies. Then there's 'Dead Road 7' - phwoar, that girl can't half yell. It's a real shocker this one, but absolutely beautiful all at once. Future single 'Love Is A Deserter' asks us to 'Get the guns out' repeatedly, to a point where the message is so much hammered home that it is tempting to, indeed, get a gun out. Title track 'No Wow' really does deserve a wow, after all, what other song could pull off the first line: 'Gonna have to step over my dead body, before you walk out that door.' Now that, my friends is real music.

Then, what other band could pull off this record? The Kills have successfully created a stand out album, which will be a definitive album this year. It's sexual, it's tense, it's taut, it's bare, sparse, torn apart, put back together again and bloody well put in a dual case for your listening pleasure.

Now THAT's music. Again, altogether now, WOW.

good album ... buy "Midnight Boom" if you're choosing between the two!
The sound is edgier and raw and they're honed in to a level that is near perfection.

This is one of the best albums I've heard for a good while. I've heard the first single to be released, the incredibly catchy 'Good Ones' a bit on the radio and I ended up buying the album. That was a great impulse buy; the entire album has the same, minimalist guitar and drums and the odd mix of vocals but without ever becoming repetitive or samey.

The two singers are a hell of a combination. At times VV has a voice with a fallen-angel quality before sounding like someone who has been at the Gauloises far too much while Hotel (the man) provides great support vocals. Not quite backing vocals, but I think it's fair to say that VV's voice carries the album more.

In short, it's a great album. Yes, it's a bit of PJ Harvey, White Stripes and Echo thrown in a blender, but I really couldn't care less. Go. Buy. Now.

Their debut album was already a hint for things to come. And initially, as i heard "No Wow" i had second thoughts as i was still under the influence of their first LP. I thought they went and fixed something that wasnt broken. But these second thoughts evaporated in a hurry after only a couple of hearings.

It's clear (at least to me by now) that the Kills have an irresistible formula in their hands and it seems they can go on pulling this off forever.

While their sound is yes a minimalist affair, it's richer yet than most bands out there. This is probably due to a very charismatic singer who can effortlessly come close to sound like one of the great modern female vocalists: P.J Harvey. I tend to think in fact, that, to bury her dirty-blues voice under anything more complex musically would be a crime. Her voice functions perfectly like an instrument for itself and it sets the cue for the dark moody and angry songs it delivers.

Sure, since the comparisons are there, the Kills lyrics might not be as intricate as Harvey's are, but then that would be my only critique on them. Because, other than that, this is one seriously addictive album. All based on one formula like their first one, but all of it hitting the spot regardless and repeatedly.

Some of the rather negative reviews i read here are clearly missing the score. Someone mentioned drum machines in a negative fashion. That perplexes me.

"No Wow" qualifies easily as one of the outstanding releases in the rock genre this year if only for its intimidating atmosphere and its creativity in combining rhythm and vocals. With better promotion this band would be going through a lot of people's ears who are actually being content with far less than what the Kills have to offer.

another great album from vv and hotel aka allison mosshart and jamie hince. mossharts vocals are creepy yet beautiful, much as she is. definitely one of the best rock vocalists around today ... hince's guitar playing is reminiscent of early jon spencer blues explosion, he sputters and blasts out bluesy licks and beefheart-esque noises. "murdermile" is already my favorite song of the year!! the album takes a couple of listenings to get under your skin, but then you're hooked. i haven't listened to anything else for a week. get it today.

The parallels to early PJ Harvey (and White Stripes) are on cue. If you like minimalist crunchy/bluesy rock with punk undertones, especially with searing female vocals, then this is the band for you. The music of Chrissie Hynde, Kim Deal, and Joan Jett also come to mind. The Kills aren't mimicking these greats, they are unquestionably unique, but they have definitely tapped into the same incredible sound.

The Kills are like eating 90% cocoa chocolate - not much sugar or cream, but overpoweringly dark and delicious. Not everybody has the taste for it, but those who do will love this.

I saw them play.

I don't care that they used a drum machine. Timbuk 3 did as well with good effect.

I don't care that they are a guy and a girl. Do the publicly popular White Stripes and under-appreciated Jucifer own the rights to two person bands(or three, depending on the inclusion of the drum machine as a robotic entity?)

I think they offer a unique sound and interpretation to the Lexicon of American Music.

My only suggestion is that they eat meat and get out during the daytime, as they appear unnaturally thin and white.

Sepehre Naficy

I have seen them play live at least ten times. I read about them in some local weekly three years ago. They sounded like a band I should check out. I even paid for my friend. It was at some industrial park in Garden Grove. Apparently The Kills were trying to play at any venue because all they had released was an EP. I immediately bought it and went home and thought about this band. I wrote the first review about them three years ago.

At the same time the editor of Free Williamsburg is writing gems like this: "The latest buzz band, Interpol, is neither groundbreaking or original but they are so entertaining I am willing to cut them some slack. This newest Matador band sounds suspiciously similar to Joy Division, only with a fresh coat of wax."

I had been trying to interview The Kills for three years. I even called them up at the Chelsea Hotel. Rough Trade has an office there. I had met Allison and Jaime many times. The interviews never happened. I ended up writing a long story about my experiences with The Kills here . The people at Dimmak Records liked this so much they used it on their own site. Anyway it's three years later, and I'm a different person. I saw The Kills play some of the new songs in November 2004. Pretty much everyone was into it. They played some new songs like "The Good Ones" and "No Wow." These songs were better than ever.

The song "No Wow" is like most of the songs on their first album. "Love Is A Deserter" is their new techno sound. Jamie plays a cool surf guitar riff. The slow dirge "Dead Road 7" is much better than the slow blues songs of their first album. "The Good Ones" is a very cool single. It almost sounds like Bachman Turner Overdrive if they were a punk band with two members. "I Hate The Way You Love" is a noisy love song that is classic Kills. The Kills are always limited by having two members, but on songs like this they are reinventing themselves, and inventing new sounds and possibility.

"At The Back Of The Shell" includes handclaps and dual singing. "Sweet Cloud" takes the poverty of sound and turns it into something really neat. "Rodeo Town" is their Velvet Underground type song. "Murdermile" makes use of the clicking drum sound that a few songs do on this record. "Ticket Man" is a short song with piano and vocals. It is utter simplicity. The Kills have made a really good album. It may not seem much better than their previous work, but it is. Get it now.

This album fits the bill if you're looking for some catchy alternative rock in today's polished, superficial music world. The Kills exhibit skilled, art-type rock that is melodic and yet abrasive.

NO WOW starts out with lots of WOW on the song "No Wow", shifts into poppy-type overdrive on "Lve Is a Deserter" and "Rodeotown", a single ("Good Ones") and "I Hate the Way You Love". Those are some highlights, but the album pulls you into playing through the entirety. Enjoy it for the ride it is!