Heart of a Punk Soul of a Rasta

Blood Pressures
The Kills
Producer Jamie Hince
Domino Records
Digital CD
No Matrix

BLOOD SIMPLE

Blood Pressures or Kills IV, Mosshart returns from her sojourn with Dead Weather which was a mightily pleasing vacation but also an inevitable cul de sac. She's back where she belongs with Mr Hince & The Kills, this is her true vocation - end of.

Listening to "Blood Pressures" is like picking up a book by a favourite writer after several years absence, it takes only a paragraph or so to reacquaint yourself with his or her turn of phrase and be absorbed back into the head of the author. And if it's The Kills then I guess it must be Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Like the threequels before it "Blood Pressures" is a proper concise well structured, well mapped out record - beginning - middle - resolution. In part it's an amalgam of all The Kills past but with a few new and sudden mood swings thrown in there, when needed, just to tip you off balance. Songs of gothic obsession in pursuit of ecstasy which end in inevitable betrayal breakdown madness and death are the order of the day. The LP bursts into life with a dual vocal drum kit rumbler "Future starts Slow". Then comes the pre single "Satellite", which has The Congos "Fisherman" at its Heart (I told you this back in February but no one ever listens) nice to see Cedric gets a credit. "Heart is a Beating Drum" and "Nail in my Coffin" are up next which are both driven along in a frenzy of dislocated guitars and to the beat of a large acrylic ball bouncing on a stone surface (well that's what it sounds like to me). The sound Hince has created here is very much a "Meanside" versus "Midnight Boom" mash up. But just when you think you know where this is all going The Kills throw in a "wrong un", "a googlie". In "Wild Charms" Hince goes solo and does a Lennon on us (well everyone else is at it nowadays it'd be rude not to join in). From deep within an out of sync double track vocal I expected him to conclude by singing "You've got your troubles (I've got mine)" by The Fortunes, instead the 1 minute 15 seconds track segues neatly into "DNA".

Next up is "Baby Says". Now there's no credit on the sleeve for this track, but the intro in my mind anyway is 100% "Gimme Shelter" by the Stones, dislocated maybe but still I think you'll agree. Take a listen, it's playing now, and sing along if you like, it goes "War, children, it's just a shot away. It's just a shot away". Of course I will be ringing Mick and Keith later this month and fully intend to mention this…..unless. Unless when playing this live The Kills segue from "Baby Says" into their version of "Gimme Shelter". If this happens I'll be quite happy to keep schtum - nuff said.

The show stopper on the album though has to be the broken down ballad "The Last Goodbye". Mosshart's voice has never sounded finer and the track perfectly defines The Kills. Any other band armed with this track and talent would have taken both off to Abbey Road and engaged the National Philharmonic String Ensemble of Somewhere or Other, and spent a load of KA$H, producing something obsequious and dull. Not The Kills, a broken down piano loop for a broken down ballad, less is definitely more - a classic.

Kills I "Keep on Your Meanside" was a minimal post punk DIY masterpiece full to the brim with fags filth faded fantasies and more filth. Kills II "Now Wow" was a slightly awkward second that scored extremely high on the gothic sleaze register. Kills III "Midnight Boom" saw the songs the melodies and the sound brought from blurred diffraction into sharp steady focus. "Blood Pressures" has elements of all three, the nails look painted and polished but there's sump oil and dirt beneath them. The Kills have continued wonderfully on as outsiders, underdogs, antiheroes, there's a big slice of blues to finish the album "Pots & Pans" which closes with the lines "These are the days we'll never forget. When then the dawn, dawns on you" the music fades and Hince and Mosshart dissolve into the darkness of a narrow passageway disappearing once more into the underbelly of the city.

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