No Fleet? Wow Mac!

“Did you get the real good ones?/Did you get me the good ones?” This is the raw purity and sexual friction overflowing from The Kills’ outstanding No Wow. The duo uses a bare minimum of instrumentation but builds tension and release through the duration. Singer Alison Mosshart and singer/guitarist Jamie Hince (under the monikers VV and Hotel respectively) insert every ounce of shared passion into 11 tracks of bottom end heavy rock.The guitar work of Jamie occupies the lowest portion of aural register possible without sounding ripped from a stoner rock handbook. This is achieved not through excessive down-tuning, but by cleverly equalizing from a production standpoint. The result is a thick, warm sound that lumbers forth with precision and ease. The occasionally reverberated tone remains strong independent of playback device, sounding impressive on full stereos, tiny headphones or worse. Songs such as the scratchy “At The Back Of The Shell” are of the rare breed that would be acceptable coming from the crappy speakers of an old car endlessly on a long road trip.

Alison’s vocals take center stage on most songs while Jamie’s fretwork builds momentum and melody. Both artists manage to deliver effortlessly persuasive performances in a tightly constricted gamut of opportunity, such as Mosshart’s chilling “I know no words to fix my killing” on “Sweet Cloud.” Like a sensuous evening to be remembered, “I Hate The Way You Love Pt. 2” and the piano driven closer “Ticket Man” helps keep the pace until the sun comes up at the end. Fans of excessive noodling should look elsewhere but all the rest should inquire with VV and Hotel for accommodations.