Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince make a formidable duo when it comes to putting together moody, hypnotizing rock tunes. With three critically acclaimed albums already under their snakeskin belts, anticipation was high for their eagerly awaited fourth album, "Blood Pressures."
Mosshart, or "VV" as she is known on stage, may be more recently recognized as the charismatic frontwoman wailing into a microphone alongside Jack White in their band The Dead Weather, but she has spent most of her musical career alongside Hince (aka "Hotel"), since they formed The Kills in 2000. The band has garnered comparisons to The White Stripes, while their private lives have come under increased scrutiny — especially Hince's, now otherwise known as supermodel Kate Moss' beau.
The band's intensely interesting private lives aside, "Blood Pressures" is a slight change of pace for the bluesy duo. Their last album, "Midnight Boom" (2008), was arguably their best yet — a temperamental album full of slow, treacly guitar riffs.
After Mosshart's experience touring and recording with The Dead Weather, she was clearly ready to change the pace. While "Blood Pressures" still has Hince's standard thick guitar in the background, the tempo of the entire album is a lot faster and includes more melodies and stand−out sounds.
The first song, "Future Starts Slow," is not immediately recognizable as The Kills, starting with an upbeat guitar riff reminiscent of any other happy, cheerful indie pop band. But then Mosshart's vocals kick in and normalcy is restored, her voice still as enticing and brooding as it has ever been. If anything, her time spent with White has upped her creativity to eleven.
"Satellite," the first single off the album and so far the only one with a music video, is a wistful, beguiling song, with repetitive, percussive rhythm adding to its regretful tone. With lyrics like, "Oh how he crossed us on that fate/ your path in my own satellite/ What a mess a little time makes to us/ when time and place collide," the song provokes an interesting medley of contemplativeness. Gratifyingly, the second song is just as good as the first.
Producer Bill Skibbe, in an interview with SPIN, admitted that Mosshart's creative energy was partly due to White's ability to make records extremely quickly. He said that the last album was "so beat−oriented, like making playground songs, while this one is more about songwriting."
This is certainly evident on the album and it is in "Wild Charms," an interlude just over a minute long, that the biggest change is apparent. In this song, it becomes clear that it was not only Mosshart who gained confidence during the band's interlude, but also Hince, as he steps out from his usual backing vocals to take on a solo (albeit a short one).
"The Last Goodbye" is a ballad unlike anything The Kills have recorded before. Mosshart has the opportunity to flaunt the limits of her voice, and there do not appear to be many. Not only can she do gritty and gloomy, but this song also showcases the soulful side to her vocals, which, when recorded over light, melodic piano, are something entirely different from what fans of The Kills are used to.
This song is evidently one of a kind, as "Damned If She Do" reverts back to the hypnotic, guitar riffs and repetitive percussive beats that make this band so unique. No matter how many songs they make, their ability to retain their sound and keep their songs individually distinctive is a quality to be admired in a band these days.
The last song on the album, "Pots and Pans," ends with the recurring lyrics, "These are the days we'll never forget/ When the dawn dawns on you," a positive end to an album with a different sound, but still intrinsically identifiable as The Kills. It seems the duo can do no wrong, no matter what band they happen to be in.
