| Kills, The - No Wow | Label: RCA Records Release: 2005 Tracklisting: 1. No Wow / Telephone Radio Germany 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, Pt. 2 7. At the Back of the Shell 8. Sweet Cloud 9. Rodeo Town 10. Murdermile 11. Ticket Man |  (View Larger Image) 
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Average Blamo User Rating:  (8 votes) |
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| CD Review by Atomsk Iscariot (View Other Reviews by This Person) | |
| I guess I just don't get it.
I mean, I entirely wish I could find the basis for all the countless hype heaped upon this band's releases by practically every music journalist on earth. This isn't just another "whoops" from NME (though one has to wonder, with the bands they've consistently recommend (Razorlight, The Zutons, The Bravery, et al) if they're really just out to make our eardrums explode out of awfulness); in fact, practically every music publication in existence gave No Wow a good review. And yet, when I actually listen to this heap of masturbatory, blues-revival bullshit, I'm convinced it's nothing but. This album is the exact reason I hated 70% of the White Stripes' Elephant, but instead of remaining a mere portion of the album, the sheer awfulness is extended over 40 minutes. It's easy to write a Kills song. Remove absolutely everything from the mix. Add drum machine. Add two distorted chords on a guitar. Add generic female voice, singing the same damn tuneless melody as is being played on the aforementioned guitar. The end. This is the formula used for practically every song on the record. Take, for instance, the title track, which opens the record in the most unspectacular way imaginable, following this formula to a T. I can understand the concept of minimalism to a point, but not when it's taken to the extent where the songs just slide right off of you in their substanceless dance. Repeated listens are useless to change this fact for me. Somehow, though, there's one exception: the rather pretty, yet simultaneously pretty unremarkable "Rodeo Town," which, emerging as the lone bright light on this album, seems to actually be good song, but once removed from the context of the album, reveals itself to be rather mundane. I don't know. I've never been a fan of blues to begin with. Hell, "Yer Blues" is my least favorite track on the White Album (yes, I can somehow stomach "Bungalow Bill" and "Wild Honey Pie" somewhat more than that track). Yet as much as I may try to crack this shell, I'm merely thrust backwards. I guess I simply don't get it. Oh fucking well. Reviewer Rating of CD :  | |
