The Kills - Midnight Boom (Domino Records, 2008)

Originally posted 1 Mar 2008, 06:19

I've compared The Kills to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs before, but I’ve always done so loosely. On Midnight Boom, however, I can’t help but be reminded more of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs than on anything else The Kills have ever done. I don’t mean The Kills have started writing songs like “Phenomena” or “Cheated Hearts,” but like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Kills have adopted an obvious (but not complete) change in sound. Unlike the Yeah Yeah Yeahs who focused on songwriting on Show Your Bones, The Kills took their sound in the opposite direction. The songs on Bones are more fleshed out and thus longer than most previous Yeah Yeah Yeahs songs, but most of Midnight Boom barely exceeds three minutes. A couple of tracks are less than 1:50. My problem with The Kills having shaved off so much time on their new album is that the songs don’t feel very thought out. Maybe I haven’t paid enough attention to the lyrics yet, but the lyrical attitude (which I dare say I enjoy more than their dirty riffs and looped drum tracks) on their first two albums doesn’t feel as apparent, on Midnight Boom.

Although I consider Midnight Boom's album and individual track lengths negative aspects of the album, I generally don’t have a problem with short songs or albums (see Guided By Voices and Beat Happening). I generally prefer short albums to long ones which is one reason why I can never sit through a Sufjan or Sigur Ros album. Short songs can definitely be great. I just don’t think The Kills quite deliver on Midnight Boom, to that extent. Also, with only twelve tracks, the album is only thirty-four minutes long. Unless a short album is a real head trip, a lot can be left to be desired, especially when I've waited X years for the artist to put out any material at all (which I did with The Kills). Considering both No Wow and Keep On Your Mean Side hover around forty minutes in length, it's not unreasonable to have expected at least that length on their third album.

Besides the bevy of (comparatively) short tracks, again, the overall sound of Midnight Boom is a departure from The Kills’ previous work. Armani XXXchange’s production is obvious, and it actually blends pleasantly with The Kills’ garage-punk blues. “What New York Used To Be" even reminds me of Peaches, and that’s not a bad thing. Despite all of my grievances, I definitely enjoy Midnight Boom. Most of all, I'm just glad that with a hip-hop producer, the album didn’t turn out like another Black and White Album.