(pair of mirrors)

The Kills at Sound Academy

Toronto, 1/5/2011

Though my heart is starting to flutter at the thought of Bonnaroo 2011, there is some unrelated heart-fluttering that’s got to be reported. This flutter has been caused by The Kills’ Blood Pressures.  I was incredibly excited for the release of this album.  Midnight Boom was a soundtrack to everything good for me, and in my view Alison Mosshart can really do no wrong. The excitement for the album was coupled with excitement for The Kills’ upcoming Toronto show at the Sound Academy. 

By the time April 5th rolled around my excitement and expectations were running high. Initial reaction? Blood Pressures failed to reach out and grab me the way I thought it would…the way that Midnight Boom did. It is decidedly less catchy. Less obvious fun. 

I wasn’t hugely disappointed. The single “Satellite” had already earned my stamp of approval and by the time I heard “Damned If She Do” for the second time my disappointment was rapidly diminishing. Now I don’t like to be all preachy with that “you have to keep listening to an album a million times to properly GET it, let it SINK” etc, but in this instance it is exactly what I prescribe. 

By last Sunday morning—nearly a month after the release—almost every song on the album had won my affection. And I say affection, not love and adoration or anything. But then something happened. I saw Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince perform much of this album, along with many Kills classics at the Sound Academy.  I usually hate the Sound Academy, but I couldn’t hate anything about this show.  I had somehow let slip from my mind how Alison Mosshart is one of the best performers I have EVER seen. She just owns the stage and commands attention in the most surreal way. I have to say she might just be my favourite front man. I say front man because I feel she beats out most of the men in the business when it comes to stage presence. Jamie Hince isn’t too hard to watch either. Wow can that man ever play guitar. 

So the final verdict? Blood Pressures is coming in strong as one of my favourite albums released so far this year. It took a while to get there, but there is something in those grungy, dirty, delightful riffs and those incredibly sexy vocals and badass lyrics that I just can’t quite live without.  And watching it live only makes it all that much better. I’ve even come around to “The Last Goodbye”—a song whose oddly broadway feel turned me off at first—but as L and others pointed out to me, really incapsulates how this band knows how to keep their grungy gritty sound interesting and evolving. I give Blood Pressures the M seal of approval and put it on the (so far VERY short list) of favourite albums of 2011, with the final recommendation that you get out and see this duo do their thing live, because it seductive and amazing. If you’re anything like me, you’ll both want them, and you’ll want to be them. 

Baby says she’s dying to meet you, take you off, and make your blood hum and tremble like the fairground lights - “Baby Says” 

-M