Midnight Boom | 
 enlarge | Artist: The Kills
Label: Domino
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
Buy New: $9.28
You Save: $4.70 (34%)
New (48) Used (15) from $7.99
Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 5909
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 164
UPC: 801390016424
EAN: 0801390016424
ASIN: B0012IWHKU
Release Date: March 18, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | U.R.A. Fever | | • | Cheap And Chearful | | • | Tape Song | | • | Getting Down | | • | Last Day Of Magic | | • | Hook And Line | | • | Black Balloon | | • | M.E.X.I.C.O.C.U | | • | Sour Cherry | | • | Alphabet Pony | | • | What New York Used To Be | | • | Goodnight Bad Morning |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk
Jamie "Hotel" Hince might have become tabloid fodder thanks to his relationship with Kate Moss, but the third album by The Kills, his band with American vocalist Alison "VV" Mosshart, does relatively little to tidy itself up for mainstream consumption. Midnight Boom is a typically lean set of makeshift punk-blues characterised by Hince's raw, Nick Zinner-style guitar, and Alison's bad-attitude drawl: see the opening "U.R.A Fever", a beat-up call-and-response number reminiscent of Royal Trux than sees Hince and Mosshart swapping sour quips over loping bass and drum machine thud, while "Cheap and Cheerful" sees Mosshart declaring "I want you to be crazy/'Cos you're boring baby when you're straight". The presence of producer Armani XXXchange of Baltimore hip-hop outfit Spank Rock means there's a greater emphasis here on rhythm, often of a synthetic nature: "Alphabet Pony" bumps along on robust, lo-fi drum kicks and bursts of primitive electronics, while "Black Balloon" is a slow-burner that toys with layered percussion built from hand claps, scrapers, and tapped snare. The Kills still have problems with a big, memorable chorus--assuming, indeed, that was ever their intention--but Midnight Boom is all about grit and grooves, and it does that just fine. -Louis Pattison
Product Description
This duo subtly and organically fuses pop, glam, blues, art-punk, and hip-hop in a manner that flits between light and dark, funny and morbid, experimental and cute. The result is a short, sharp twelve track album of sensual, fresh, and atmospheric songs. A reminder that no one on earth makes rock 'n' roll quite like The Kills. Previous albums "No Wow" and "Keep On Your Mean Side" have sold over 70,000.
Album Description
2008 album from the Alterntive duo. The Kills subtly and organically fuses Pop, Glam,Bblues, Art-Punk, and Hip Hop in a manner that flits between light and dark, funny and morbid, experimental and cute. The result is a short, sharp twelve track album of sensual, fresh, and atmospheric songs. A reminder that no one on earth makes Rock 'N' Roll quite like The Kills.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great Album October 30, 2008
Brandy L. Blessing (Charm City, Maryland)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love this album; it is very gritty and raw just the way I like it. The Kills have a truly original sound. I want to hear more!
An absolutely stunning album September 20, 2008
Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I liked both of the Kills earlier albums -- KEEP ON YOUR MEAN SIDE and NO WOW -- but didn't think that they were so excellent that I needed another one. Lord, was I ever wrong. MIDNIGHT BLOOM is not merely a huge leap forward, but is one of the best rock albums of 2008. While the first two albums were excellent in every way, there was a bit of monotonous sameness that crept in as you listened to them in their entirety. They were best listened to in hunks, not wholes. MIDNIGHT BLOOM is diversely textured from beginning to end, with far more nuance to the arrangements and a wonderful diversity to the songs, without losing any of their hard edge.
The Kills are a duo like the White Stripes, except that they rely on recordings of Hotel aka Jamie Hince drumming with VV aka Alison Mosshart doing the bulk of the vocals. But they don't sound anything like White Stripes. They frequently have moments that remind me of PJ Harvey or the Pixies. Live they are extremely minimalistic, but MIDNIGHT BLOOM is deeply layered with a host of bells and whistles that can only exist in a studio. In listening to many of the album's cuts you might think that there would be no way that they could translate many of the songs to a stage performance, but it is amazing how completely they make the transition.
I could -- and will -- tick off what I think are the album's best songs, but what impresses me is that it really is a good album. The various cuts reinforce each other. I won't say the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but all the parts do their work. For instance, "Black Balloon" is almost delicate and meditative compared to what precedes it, but the next cut, "M.E.X.I.C.O.," is a hard driving rocker. "Sour Cherry" is a masterpiece of rock minimalism combined with unorthodox percussion, with a sassy attitude ("I'm the only sour cherry on the fruit stand"). The first two cuts on the album, "U.R.A. Fever" and "Cheap and Cheerful" are great singles that set the tone for everything that comes. The song that follows, "The Tape Song," might objectively be as great a song, but I enjoyed it perhaps just as much. "What New York Used to Be" is a killer penultimate cut leading into the soft-edged "Goodnight Bad Morning" puts the album to bed.
If you love indie rock you have to have this album. That's all there is to it.
All I know is that... September 1, 2008
Jason Harrington (www.myspace.com/mad_trucker)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Kills previous album was just OK to me (great songs beside boring ones), so when a hip hop DJ recommended this one to me, naturally I was a bit confused. However, I bought it after hearing the sound clips, and the second I pressed play It was like punk rock dance time all the way to the end. Midnight Boom makes CSS and Le Tigre (among others) look like they might have missed the point somewhere along the way. Le Tigre interrupt the party by trying to have a "message," like Christian metal stopping to preach, and CSS can sometimes turn into the South American equivalent of Ween at times when their meaningless lyrics become painful. Midnight Boom is more filled with lyrics that might mean something, but mostly keep their meanings to themselves. Also, I think it's really cool to finally hear that "after-tone" Fugazi-ish guitar style actually enjoying time spent with a drum machine. Hopefully it will work for you, because for me it's a contender for album-of-the-year.
Stop Me Before I Do Something Desperate! August 20, 2008
Gavin B. (St. Louis MO)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I can't help myself. I need to get in to a 12-step program to stop listening to the Kills latest offering, "Midnight Boom." I'm becoming a crazed zealot who wants to take hostages, tie them up in my basement and force them to listen to "Getting Down" over and over until the get the "big picture." Know what I mean?
The Kills have been around about 5 years and have released two first rate albums on Rough Trade but their latest release "Midnight Boom" is the deal closer for the Kills. As of late the Kills have matured into a ramshakle, kinetic force of nature capable of explosive live performances.
Now I'm waiting for the Kills to sell out so I can act snarky and give them a good flogging for going mainstream. I must be a seriously demented person to harbor such a negative attitude.
Their song lyrics are often clever and funny. Their sense of vintage thrift shop style has earned them a couple of fashion spreads in major fashion magazines. That being said, the Kills are not bloodless posuers. There is a gritty and electrifying substance that triumphs over the Kills' keen sense of style.
I spend a lot of time listening to new music and reviewing groups but the Kills stood right up a grabbed me and wouldn't let go. I've always gone for quirky musical types with strange and often sinister agendas. The Kills music is an eccentric hybrid of 2nd generation punk, delta blues, funk, garage rock fused with eletronic beats and pop hooks.
The Kills were right up my alley. Of course my musical "alley" is strewn with old Rev. Gary Davis 45 RPM records, a first pressing of the Lyres not so big hit "Don't Give It Up" and countless yard sale mark-down musical treasures by the such cornerstones of obscurity as Ray Condo and the Hardrock Goners, Lou Miami and the Kozmetix, and Joe Bird and his Field Hippies.
Jamie Hinson's slashing and often dissonant guitar rythyms sound like that of many of the earliest post-punk, anti-guitar heroes like Andy Gill of Gang of Four, Keith Levine of Public Image and Roger Miller of Mission of Burma. The object of the game is to use the guitar more as a percussion instrument to wrap the music in sonic wall of rhythym.
The duo sings a lot of songs in loose harmony which recall the full throttled, take-no-prisoners vocal harmonies of John Doe and Exene Cervenka in the glory days of X, Los Angeles' premier punk band. Female vocalist Alison Mosshart has done her homework in musicology and would be equally comfortable singing an old blues/jazz standard like "St. James Infirmary", as she would be singing an old Velvet Underground tune like "Waiting for the Man." The added harmonies by Jamie are just icing on the cake and just one more thing that adds up to the Kill's distinctive trademark sound.
I've always disliked the sound of prepared riddims of a drum machine. The overall effect usually sounds like a metronome, but the Kills intergrate the electronic beats into their arrangements with such organic care that it actually enhances their sound.
Okay that's it. You've been given fair warning. This album isn't for the feint of heart and I'm an object lesson of just how one innocuous music purchase can transform you into an abuser on the fast track to a musical detox, in a matter of days.
RECOMMENDED TUNES: URA Fever, Getting Down, Cheap and Cheerful, New York Used to Be & Black Ballon.
 the art of empty August 18, 2008
Doc Schreiber (West Coast)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Stealing left and right from Joan Jett to PJ Harvey, this is utterly boring and uninventive. It's pathetic how little one has to do nowadays to sell "music" (hint: date a faded model).
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