By Jaime Burnet
Up against the wall of rock’s back alleys, dirty guitar grinds against the knuckle-crack staccato backbeat of a drum machine. The stripped-down sound of Hotel, aka Jamie Hince, and the full, throaty vocals of VV, aka Alison Mosshart, create a sexual electric current running beneath the surface of each song on No Wow, the second effort by this English/American duo. Influenced musically by The Velvet Underground and entranced by the self-destructive aesthetic of Edie Sedgwick, The Kills craft lean musical structures and dark stories, trimming the excess to channel their energy into each moaning syllable and crunching riff. Mysterious blues, animalistic desire and abstract-random lyrics rattle together in your brain, leaving an elemental reverb and cravings for black leather and cigarettes.