The Raveonettes, Lust, Lust, Lust

Lust, Lust, Lust walks you into a distorted world filled with love, sex, desire, and sin. Stripping away the more garage-rock sound of The Raveonettes’ last album, Pretty in Black, Sune Rose Wagner anchors his sound with feedback as ’50s guitar hooks circle through each song, sweeping you under the concrete slab of a wet deserted street in the middle of the night. There is nothing clean about this album. It’s raw, murky, and beautiful.

By the fourth song, “Dead Sound,” you may start to feel safe with Sharin Foo’s dreamy vocals, but heartbreak is just around the corner. You get no sympathy here — instead, you’re taken right back into another state, drowning in white-noise with “Expelled from Love” and “With My Eyes Closed.” Sometimes you can’t even hear the tone of the guitar, as it’s hidden under the shrill thickness of the distortion.

The Raveonettes tease us, too, with the pop hooks of “You Want the Candy” and “Blitzed,” early ’90s Mary-Chain-styled jams that are solid and inspired by something you know you shouldn’t have. Throughout the rest of the album, though, the feel remains dark and seductive, sucking you into the atmosphere of lust and regret, wanting more but getting less. The Raveonettes have reopened their world of tortuous echoes. It gets a little repetitious for my taste after 14 tracks, but I did enjoy the appetite they have for wanting, dying, and never healing — all major themes throughout Lust, Lust, Lust.