The Kills - Ash & Ice
- Written by Marky Edison
Sometimes an established band releases an album and you can’t help but wonder if it would have gotten any attention at all but for the name on the cover. Would anyone listen twice to the same album by an unknown band? Brand recognition can disguise a lack of effort on the part of a band that is trading off past glories. But enough about Radiohead, The Kills have a new album out and it is fabulous.
The Kills have gone pop with Ash & Ice and it is glorious. It’s shocking at first. Anyone accustomed to, for example, Midnight Boom may need a few listens to allow their ears to adjust to this new approach, which continues the evolution of their sound that began with the Black Balloon EP and ran through 2011’s Blood Pressures. Ash & Ice is more subdued, more compressed, more contained than past efforts. Like when PJ Harvey went from guitar-rage assault of 'Rid Of Me' to the award-winning art pop of 'To Bring You My Love', this could be The Kills’ mainstream-crossover breakthrough record.
Ash & Ice doesn’t start off particularly well. I was dubious about ‘Doing It To Death’ when it was initially released in March, and multiple listens compounded those doubts. Despite some memorable moments, it is a dull tune. Things pick up a bit with ‘Heart Of A Dog’ but it’s on ‘Hard Habit To Break’ that Ash & Ice really takes flight. Their sound is no longer minimalist, although there is stillmore space in their songs than in most modern productions, and definitely not lo-fi anymore. These songs are more conventional and traditionally structured than you might expect from The Kills. The edges have been knocked off. Alison Mosshart sings smoothly while Jamie Hince’s guitars sound like a primitive, deviant take on Billy Idol or Eagles Of Death Metal. Their change of sound has been partly necessitated by Hince’s hand injury. He required a tendon transplant, five surgeries and a lot of physiotherapy before he could relearn how to play the guitar. He is still without the use of one of his fretting fingers.
Once you get over the initial jolt, Ash & Ice gets better and better. This being The Kills, it still sounds a bit weird, but not to the extent that they have done before. ‘Hard Habit To Break’ could play in your local disco on a Saturday night between Lady Gaga and Will.I.Am and no one would bat an eyelid. The 808-style bass is so fat and warm that you wish they would include more bass in their songs. And, as if they have heard your prayers, along comes ‘Bitter Fruit’. The bass line here is a sexy mofo, and the whole tune has a similar feel to Robert Palmer’s ‘Addicted To Love’.
‘Let It Drop’ revolves around a riff that could be lifted from one of Dr. Dre’s Snoop Dogg productions. ‘Hum For Your Buzz’ is a straightforward, bluesy ballad about an aching heart waiting for the telephone to ring. ‘That Love’ is another slow tune, this time lead by piano as Mosshart captures the ambivalence of heartbreak; “It’s over now/ That love you’re in is a fucking joke”. The production by Hince and John O’Mahony is slick and full, eschewing the DIY feel of The Kills’ earlier albums. The warmth and intimacy of those records has been replaced by a more complete sound. The duo sound like a full band and can lay down a groove like that of latest single ‘Siberian Nights’. In a reflection of The Velvet Underground and possibly inspired by Hince’s trans-Siberian trek during his recuperation, 'Impossible Tracks' mimics the sound and rhythm of a train.
Ash & Ice is by no means a perfect album but leaving the few dud tracks aside it is an album that will have you coming back for more again and again.