[rating=4.50]
On their fourth release, the Kills place more emphasis on melody than on angsty rock riffing. Blood Pressures features fewer squealing guitars and buzzing feedback and more vocal harmonies. Hell, there’s even a piano ballad. Not to worry, though; the duo’s gritty sound, combining blues with a punk swagger, is intact.
To quote the opening track, Blood Pressures is an album that “thumps like a broken sail.” Alison Mosshart’s vocals are more of a focus this time, but the pounding percussion and jackhammer guitar rhythms of Jamie Hince are still the backbone of the Kills. “Satellite,” the album’s lead single, is the Kills’ unique take on a slow blues shuffle. “Heart is a Beating Drum” sounds straight off of Midnight Boom, complete with thudding percussion, hand claps, staccato picking and stop-and-start guitar riffing. In the anthemic “DNA,” Hince’s guitar licks mimic the vocal melody in the verses before tearing into fuzzed-out power chords for the chorus.
Blood Pressures is more bass-heavy than previous releases, which is odd for a band lacking a bassist. Though the Kills continue to explore the limits of a two-person sound, it is the lyrics that have improved the most since Midnight Boom. The album is comprised of cynical songs of tortured love and romantic disappointment. The tremolo-heavy “Baby Says” is a song about the manipulative nature of love and lust. “How can I rely on my heart if I break it with my own two hands?” Mosshart asks on “The Last Goodbye.” By focusing more on invoking empathy through lyrics and melody, the Kills guarantee listeners the opposite experience of the mantra repeated in “DNA” – “We will not be moved by it.”
