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Album Details

• Artist: The Kills
• Album: Keep On Your Meanside
• Label: Rough Trade
• Year of Release: 2003
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-06-18

I think the Kills ended up getting a bad rap. They got lumped in with the likes of The White Stripes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs when they have much more in common with either PJ Harvey or Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. There are more Blues on Keep on your Meanside than garage rock, even if the later does incorporate some of the former. Lead vocalist VV should be a finalist for a PJ Harvey sound-alike. It is really scary. The music is similar too if only stripped down more. Upon first listen to Meanside I wasn't overly impressed but as soon as the second I was sold. This is stripped down rock and roll at it's finest. It is the male/female vocals that really do it for me. VV is good on her own but when you mix that with the talented vocals of Hotel, a.k.a. Jamie Hince. A bit of that meant-to-be when they were trading tapes from the UK to the USA and vice-versa when they felt they had something going so VV relocated to the US. It was a good thing. The album starts off with a great impression of what to expect, "Superstition" is a track that really reminds me of PJ's "Down By The Water". Things get rough and dirty on "Cat Claw" and don't look back. And I honestly love it when a band leaves some of the best material for the end of the album. VV takes "Gypsy Death and You" straight to heart and comes off sounding like she could give Patsy Cline a run for her money (well, if she was a punk singer). Keep On Your Meanside is one of the most impressive debut albums I have heard this year.

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