The Raveonettes - Raven In The Grave

It’s often said of The Velvet Underground that not many people bought their albums the first time around, but those that did invariably went on to form a band. Given that in 2011 it is virtually de rigueur to combine Phil Spector melodies with Jesus And Mary Chain feedback the same could possibly be said of The Raveonettes. The Danish duo of Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo have been ploughing their own particular stylistic furrow since 2002’s ‘Whip It On’ with only a modicum of commercial success (in the UK at least), only to find that in 2011 owning a pair of black Raybans and a well worn copy of ‘Psychocandy’ is a surefire way to wind up on the front cover of the NME. Yes, I’m looking at you James Glasvegas, Bethany Best Coast, Justine Vaccine…

It is therefore somewhat ironic that ‘Raven In The Grave’, the bands fifth album proper, is the least Raveonettes sounding album to date. The twangy surf rock of their previous releases is almost entirely absent, instead replaced by something altogether more (whisper it) gothic.

Opening track ‘Recharge And Revolt’ is a perfect example. It may start with a Ronettes drumbeat and a squall of My Bloody Valentine guitar, but then you notice the keyboards, the kind that wouldn’t sound out of place on The Cure’s ‘Disintegration’. They give the song a widescreen quality as Wagner’s world weary vocals sing of ‘the dreamiest girl that ever entered my mind.’ It’s emotive, surprising and a superb start to the album.

Sharin Foo takes the vocals on ‘War In Heaven’, but the mood doesn’t change. Propelled by a bassline that couldn’t be more Eighties Goth if it was drinking Snakebite and had spent hours in front of a mirror backcombing it’s hair, the twinkly keyboards and spidery guitar lines are somewhat marred by the clunky lyrics - ‘A war in heaven, I hate it when they forget to let people in.’

WIth the sole exception of ‘Ignite’ the remaining tracks are similarly down tempo, giving the whole album a dreamlike quality. With its faltering drum pattern ‘Forget That You’re Young’ could feature on the closing credits to a John Hughes film whilst ‘Let Me On Out’ is what The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart will sound like once the music business beats all that brash exuberance out of them.

At just 36 minutes, the album is quickly over, but The Raveonettes save the best for last. ‘My Time Is Up’ is the sound of the Everly Brothers recorded through a thousand effects pedals and remixed by Kevin Shields. The guitars sound like rockets as they swoosh from speaker to speaker and slowly build to a crescendo giving the song a strangely redemptive quality until you realise Wagner and Foo are apparently duetting about someone ending their own life.

Whether this change in direction will earn The Raveonettes any new fans is anyone’s guess. One could surmise that having done their own thing for so long, the band care little for such fripperies. However, I’d like to think that that at any given time Sharin and Sune will be somewhere out there, dressed in black, wearing sunglasses indoors and dreaming up albums as good as ‘Raven In The Grave’.