The Kills "No Wow" – The second full length for the dirty dark rock duo. Songs are minimal stripped down rock with heavy, fuzzed-out, overblown, menacing guitars. Drums are drum machines and don't really try to disguise themselves as anything but. Vocals are mostly female, sexy with a touch of anger. Male vocals often get lost in the background. The minimal sound to each song is really nice, but at times it leaves you wanting a huge onslaught of noise and pounding that never comes. Definitely recommended for anyone looking for some dirty, distorted rock.
My Picks: 1, 7
Katie P. 4/6/05

1)Starts with a gallop drum machine beat. Ominous bass sounds are added and female vocals. Builds slowly with more guitar and drums. Kind of angry. Stops with 50 seconds left and then sounds of flipping through radio stations. Quiet and distorted.
2)Uptempo driving beat that holds back a little. Female vocals with male backups sing along to guitar melody. Has an abrupt stop in the middle and starts up again.
3)Slower plodding midtempo. Up front female vocals. Creeping guitar chord progressions. Ends abruptly.
4)Goofy drum machine beat. Heavy fuzzed out guitars come in. Nice uptempo beat but holding back a little as if it's going to blow up. Female with male backup vocals. Finally gives you a few loud guitar crunches, but never really pays off.
5)Solid midtempo with female spoken/sung vocals. Guitars are distorted and a little droning. Dirty guitar bits sometimes compete with the vocals.
6)Slower and more melodic chorus of track #5. Droning guitar with some feedback noise in the background.
7)Hand claps and dirty guitar starts it off. Female and male vocals. Nice minimal sound. Crazy guitar effect makes it sound stuttered. Solid midtempo. Very cool.
8)Faster midtempo to uptempo beat with bass and drums. Female vocals added and then some distorted overblown guitar. Echoes a few lines from track #7. Again still kind of minimal. Ends abruptly.
9)Slower midtempo with quiet guitar strumming and up front female vocals. Most melodic poppy tune on the album.
10)Fcc: says “shit.” Funny drum machine intro goes into some nice distorted guitar. Solid driving beat with female and male vocals. Bass kind of rumbles. Ends abruptly.
11)Starts slow with piano and female vocals along with a distorted drum hit. The whole song is very lo-fi and nothing else is added. Ends with someone walking out of the room and closing the door.