CD of The Week

I don’t think it is legally possible to review The Kills’ new album Blood Pressures without first talking about Allison Mosshart’s time in The Dead Weather. While touring behind the Kills’ last release, 2008’s Midnight Boom, it was announced that Mosshart would be joining up with Jack White as the frontwoman for his newest band. The Dead Weather ended up releasing two albums in two years and touring extensively, while The Kills sat on the back burner (and Mosshart’s bandmate Jamie Hince spent quality time with his longtime girlfriend Kate Moss).

Now the pair is back in action as The Kills once again, with a stronger, fuller sound on Blood Pressures. Mosshart’s vocals are even more up front and forceful than ever on album opener “Future Starts Slow”, as well as on “Nail In My Coffin.” By now you’ve heard the loping, almost reggae-influenced beat of the lead single “Satellite.” Hince takes the lead on the midtempo interlude “Wild Charms,” before another noisy, bluesy vocal turn from Mosshart on the swaggering “DNA.” The band slows things down on “The Last Goodbye,” a straightforward, stripped-down torch song with a moving performance from Mosshart.

“Heart Is A Beating Drum,” one of the best songs on the record, finds Mosshart and Hince singing that “you can holler, you can wail, you can blow what’s left of my right mind.” On Blood Pressures, consider that mission accomplished. The Kills will be hollerin’ and wailin’ at The TLA on April 27th.