Midnight Boom

Description

In three albums, this odd Anglo-Saxon couple has already stuck its fingers into every rock socket and continues to spark. *Midnight Boom* is their most festive record to date, and it’s a pleasure to hear. After a debut under the sign of blues and garage-rock (*Keep On Your Mean Side*), and a second album that borrowed from the minimalist new wave of the late ’70s without anyone thinking to fault them for it (*Now Wow*), Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince have apparently decided to do as they please and let their elephants loose in a china shop. More fun, more caustic, more fuzz, and with a less tight sound, *Midnight Boom* shows what it’s about from the electro-glam *Cheap And Cheerful*. *Tape Song* skips along on its primitive drum machine, *Getting Down* dares the split between Joan Jett and Devo, while *M.E.X.I.C.O.* makes more noise than an airport. Riding on its not-always-fluid rhythms, *Midnight Boom* is a loud-mouthed record (Mosshart’s mouth) that Hince pollutes with distorted guitar sounds and treated keyboards (via filters), adding to that ambient confusion The Kills take pleasure in cultivating.