Boys Who Review (Should All Be Destroyed)
The Raveonettes : 'In and Out of Control'
Released : 5th October 2009
Label: Fierce Panda
Noise is ace. I mean, you wouldn’t be on this site if you didn’t think music, which is essentially artfully crafted noise (except for Lady Gaga, when it’s just a constant irritating screech that makes you want to drive rusty nails into your ears until the blood sprays and the world goes mute), was ace. Noise in a musical sense though tends to mean a certain application of techniques, musique concrete, feedback, distortion, fuzz or overdrive, and I love that too. Some of my favourite bands, like My Bloody Valentine, the Velvet Underground, Glasvegas, The Verve (first album) Yo La Tengo, and the excellent Exit Calm (you’ll see – watch that particular space very closely) all showcase this type of sound, and wash their music in epic waves of noise. It probably found its genesis with 60s girl groups like The Shirelles, The Ronettes and acts associated with producer Phil Spector. Their gorgeously melodic songs would shimmer against the backdrop of Walls of Sound that were painstakingly built up by Spector whenever he wasn’t gunning people down or being, well, let’s say, a little eccentric.
One band that has used this too is The Raveonettes, who took their names from The Ronettes and Buddy Holly’s Rave On! This was very good of them as it links this paragraph to the opening one, and pedantic writers like me enjoy that sort of thing. The Scandinavian duo imbue their music with a distinct melange of pop, simple guitaring like that from the classic ages of rock & roll and a dark lyrical edge smeared with lots of noise. It’s not quite noise pop and it’s not quite rock, but it tilts in the middle somewhere like a drunken hippo on a seesaw. They have always done fairly well critically, but have never really burst into the mainstream at all, which in a way is probably a good thing; I mean, Lady Gaga is “in the mainstream” (MUST stop picking on Lady Gaga now – the irritating, attention-seeking cretin…sorry)
Anyway, their fourth LP has the rather sociopathic title In And Out Of Control, and it is no real departure from the Raveonettes’ traditional sound. Right out of the gate you get guitars fuzzily droning, power chords thrown out, whole canyons of distortion vertiginously rising up. And yet, when you dig through that, there are some very sweet, though not saccharine, melodies lurking. The 60s leitmotif is apparent too, the two-part melodies seductively curling around each other like cigarette smoke as the guitar lines trill along. It’s an intoxicating blend, and there are times when you can close your eyes and imagine parts of the album coming straight out of the 1960s; the only way they could have given it any more historical veracity would be to dub JFK’s assassination, the moon landings and England’s World Cup win deep in the mix, but they didn’t, THE BOTTLERS.
Another thing worth noting too is that the LP has a claim to being the album with the most provocative song titles I’ve seen in a very long time. The Raveonettes have never exactly been squeamish when it comes to gritty material, but there are songs here called 'D.R.U.G.S','Suicide' and 'Breaking Into Cars'; in fact, the track listing reads like a kitchen sink drama scripted by Irvine Welsh at times. In any case, the standout track for me is the fantastically literal 'Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)', a stunning song that borrows the Abba technique of taking dark lyrical material and wrapping it in a pretty bow for presentation. The relentless burr of the guitars thrums the tune on, whilst Sharin Foo dances the beautiful melody, complete with ridiculously catchy singalong chorus, over the top, like a butterfly skirting a swamp. It even has an Astronauts-esque guitar solo in it. Put simply, it’s great, and an example of the heights this band can reach when they stretch.
It’s not all hunky dory unfortunately, with some songs, such as 'Last Dance' and the aforementioned 'D.R.U.G.S' not reaching the levels of the other tracks and messing up with ingredients that make for such good fare elsewhere on IAOOC. However, this is a pretty minor gripe, and all in all the album stands up well, an accessible and at times thrilling evocation of 60s pop and 70s dirt; in fact, it’s pretty much what the bastard lovechild of Lou Reed and Skeeter Davis would have come up with and, for me, that’s not too bad at all.
8.5/10
Words: Paul Madill
Write a comment
- Required fields are marked with *.
-->