The Kills - Midnight Boom

The context surrounding ‘Midnight Boom’ could barely be stranger: a record written by an anti-pop band (at least if their early aesthetics were to be believed), running away to Mexico after having written various follow-ups to the dark, if addictive ‘No Wow’, all rejected in one way or another. Then - the band still largely blues-rock oriented - opting to record with Spank Rock’s Alex, after having been influenced by a 1960s documentary about school children. And that’s before you’ve got anywhere near the tabloid-fodder which, although unavoidable around the release of this album, isn’t at all relevant at all to the songs within.

And what of it all? The infantile influences are evident mostly on ‘Alphabet Pony’, the dancefloor production vivid throughout ‘Sour Cherry’ and single ‘Cheap and Cheerful’. There’s even a cheeky nod to their hoped-for paradise in ‘M.E.X.I.C.O.C.U’. And yet it’s all very much the same The Kills; the sparse, driven-down blues of before, if a lot more polished in places, and a little less serious in others.

‘U.R.A. Fever’ was, on reflection, the obvious first single - the point at which Jamie and Alison switch over from being all menacing, brooding even, and begin to create what they probably wouldn’t want to acknowledge as damn fine pop songs. Perhaps thanks to the production, perhaps always there intentionally, any of these tracks could be a single. And then there’s ‘Tape Song’. Tape Song is The Kills’ ‘Maps’, all building guitars, sparse verses and resigned vocals.

‘Midnight Boom’ is, in short, a deliciously juicy record, which thankfully might just last the attention spans of their league of newly-found fly-by-night fans, yet still has enough of the old to keep any stalwarts interested.