It seems that whenever a new (or an old) style of music blasts it's way onto the scene, the imitators are never that far behind. Look at Nirvana, when they made their entry onto the music scene in 1991, it wasn't long before the market was totally saturated with grunge bands, some of them good, but most of the derivative and shitty. When Korn came and redefined heavy metal with their dark, whiny fusion of loud guitars and hip-hop, it wasn't long before a thousand imitators were copying them.

Could it be that the same thing is happening with The White Stripes? They come up with a bluesy version of garage rock, and suddenly there are a couple of dozen other garage blues bands about the place, all competing for your attention. The Kills are one of those groups, but thankfully, they've got some unique elements of their own, and they aren't just a straight White Stripes knockoff like you might initially be led to believe.

While there is a definite blues influence on this record, it's definitely a new sort of blues, different from the sort of David Gilmour-esque blues guitar that you might initially visualise. It's a lot seedier, a lot more frantic, and even faintly sleazy. The band, which consists of a girl from the United States, and a guy from England, don't seem to be trying to do anything to dispel this image, throwing sexual tension about the place like it's going out of style. From a more stylistic point of view, they both seem to be fairly talented, varying their style from loud bursts of fuzzy distorted guitar, so painstakingly arranged acoustic and melodic numbers.

Some highlight tracks here include Kissy Kissy, Superstition, and the mesmerising track, Gypsy Death & You. The band do have a penchant for using the f-word, so if you're easily offended, then perhaps this is not the record for you. Then again, if you're easily offended, and you buy a record that I've already described as "seedy and sleazy", then you really deserve everything you get, don't you?

If many of the tracks on this record sound raw and unpolished, it's because some of the songs were actually recorded live, rather than being record one instrument at a time like most other modern music is. While many people will probably scoff at this rather organic and unorthodox method of recording music, it's hard to deny that these songs have a sort of energy, even with the absence of a human drummer, that the traditional recording method often saps out of music.

In short, this is a very positive debut for the band. It gets a bit weak in a couple of places, but those spots are far enough apart that I can forgive them for it. Fans of The White Stripes should probably lap this up, but there is enough variation on the formula here even for people who don't enjoy the mainstream garage-blues sound.

It seems that whenever a new (or an old) style of music blasts it's way onto the scene, the imitators are never that far behind. Look at Nirvana, when they made their entry onto the music scene in 1991, it wasn't long before the market was totally saturated with grunge bands, some of them good, but most of the derivative and shitty. When Korn came and redefined heavy metal with their dark, whiny fusion of loud guitars and hip-hop, it wasn't long before a thousand imitators were copying them.

Could it be that the same thing is happening with The White Stripes? They come up with a bluesy version of garage rock, and suddenly there are a couple of dozen other garage blues bands about the place, all competing for your attention. The Kills are one of those groups, but thankfully, they've got some unique elements of their own, and they aren't just a straight White Stripes knockoff like you might initially be led to believe.

While there is a definite blues influence on this record, it's definitely a new sort of blues, different from the sort of David Gilmour-esque blues guitar that you might initially visualise. It's a lot seedier, a lot more frantic, and even faintly sleazy. The band, which consists of a girl from the United States, and a guy from England, don't seem to be trying to do anything to dispel this image, throwing sexual tension about the place like it's going out of style. From a more stylistic point of view, they both seem to be fairly talented, varying their style from loud bursts of fuzzy distorted guitar, so painstakingly arranged acoustic and melodic numbers.

Some highlight tracks here include Kissy Kissy, Superstition, and the mesmerising track, Gypsy Death & You. The band do have a penchant for using the f-word, so if you're easily offended, then perhaps this is not the record for you. Then again, if you're easily offended, and you buy a record that I've already described as "seedy and sleazy", then you really deserve everything you get, don't you?

If many of the tracks on this record sound raw and unpolished, it's because some of the songs were actually recorded live, rather than being record one instrument at a time like most other modern music is. While many people will probably scoff at this rather organic and unorthodox method of recording music, it's hard to deny that these songs have a sort of energy, even with the absence of a human drummer, that the traditional recording method often saps out of music.

In short, this is a very positive debut for the band. It gets a bit weak in a couple of places, but those spots are far enough apart that I can forgive them for it. Fans of The White Stripes should probably lap this up, but there is enough variation on the formula here even for people who don't enjoy the mainstream garage-blues sound.