First erupting from the fertile loins of Adele Bethel whilst he was on tour with Arab Strap in 2001, the band has supported everyone from Franz Ferdinand and Throwing Muses during their less than meteoric rise to this, their third album, produced by produced by ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler and building on the band’s characteristic brand of gothic, vaguely folksy punk-rock. In fishnets.
Recalling bands as noisy and diverse as The Birthday Party and Pretty Girls Make Graves, ‘The Gift’ tears up a course of beefy, growling rhythms, manic time-signatures, shredded riffing and poison prose; not unlike what you get when you cross a classic Film Noir movie your choice with Lulu and Vampira’s Maila Nurmi. Dark, chilling and rattling with the bones of Glam-Era corpses, tracks like ‘Gilt Complex’ and ‘Darling’ are to vampish indie-rock what phamaldahide is to taxidermy – they lift up, they make your eyes pop out and they stuff you with bad intentions. Even ‘The Nest’ with its quasi-Spectorish drum-thumping and retro guitars makes a reasonable stab at raising both our sperm count and our blood pressure. Disappointingly, however, it only too often drags mid-90s indie kicking and screaming from the vaults: ‘Split Lips’ could be anyone from Throwing Muses to Catatonia whilst ‘Rebel With The Ghost’ is about as convincing as Transvision Vamp (and not half as good as the Go Gos – even if ‘Iodine’ licks at the same lusty flames on occasions)
It’s perhaps harder than anything else they’ve done, but trying to sustain a cruel and sexy growl over 42 minutes is likely to tire even the most dedicated of vampires. With the exception of the singles, it’s fairly pedestrian.
Making satisfactory progress. I think.
ALBUM: ‘THE GIFT’ – OUT 28TH FEB 2008