UPDATE 1 Jan 20th 2006
New On The Chart
Having gained a new drummer in the form of ex-
Chromatics member Hannah Blilie and dropped the 'The' from their band title,
Gossip return with their third album (produced by Fugazi veteran Guy Poccioto no less] entitled
'Standing In The Way Of Control'.
Incendiary opener
‘Fire With Fire’ suggest the group may have been making notes during their tour stint with
Yeah Yeah Yeah’s with Brace Paine's taunt, buzzing guitar backed by Hannah’s drums which, when appropriate, crash and tumble like a landslide or crack with the authoritarian zeal of a disciplining bullwhip.
Next up, title track
‘Standing In The Way Of Control’ gallops along like Black Beauty rigged with disco lights, while the dislocated, jerky rhythm of
‘Jealous Girls’ (reminiscent, perhaps, of
Devo) catches the ear to an equally arresting degree, even if the chorus doesn’t quite live up to the promise of the verses.
Track four
‘Coal To Diamonds’ signals the group’s first and most serious error of judgement. The albums quietest moment, it suffers from having only a rudimentary accompaniment and as strong as Beth Ditto's vocals are, they are unable to produce the sort of atmospherics that, say,
Rachel Nagy might on one of the
Detroit Cobras more stripped back moments. Similarily, when she bellows out on
‘Eyes Open’ you gets the impression it is to cover up a deficit of musical ideas from her backing musicians as opposed to any sort of vocal showcasing.
While there’s nothing revolutionary going on during
‘Listen Up!’ it does feature is a wickedly tight, pneumatic groove that
LCD Soundsystem could only hope to emulate and as such is the albums best bet to meet the bands self proclaimed hip swaying agenda.
The last few songs, patchy and lacking somewhat the vibrancy of their first half predecessors, take some sheen off an album that, while good doesn’t quite live up to it’s initial promise. Fortunately then, to counter these misteps, the band end on a high note with
‘Dark Lines’ a track where Beth’s disco diva vocal persona is replaced with a sutbler, jazzy soul and which makes for a satisfying conclusion to a generally fine LP.
Gossip ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’ scores 6.80 and enters Konstantiranks at no.2
RELATED LINKS
Find out more about
Gossip here
>>>
http://www.myspace.com/gossipband
KONSTANTIRANKS 2006 (CURRENT STANDINGS)
1. the strokes - FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EARTH 7.07
2. gossip - STANDING IN THE WAY OF CONTROL 6.80
3. the high dials - WAR OF THE WAKENING PHANTOMS 6.71
tbr - Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins - RABBIT FUR COAT