Bangs
Sweet Revenge (Kill Rock Stars)
by Marc Hirsh

originally published in Space City Rock, Fall 2002

Sweet Revenge is too damn short. There, I said it. The opening "Fast Easy Love" clocks in at just under a minute, and less than a half an hour later, you're stuck with the decision of whether to poke your head into the sunshiny world outside or just push "play" again. The way the band cranks through the album should make the decision to opt for the latter tack an easy one. Welcome to my world.

On their second album, then, Bangs (no "the," which makes noun/verb agreement dicey) is (see?) generally happy just to bash a few songs out, and I'm happy just to hear 'em. What makes Sweet Revenge far more intriguing is that it suggests a persona that's certainly not unwarranted but is unanticipated at the very least, that of a punked-up (and Courtney-cognizant) Shangri-Las. Which may not have been even close to what they were shooting for, but I swear it's there: tough/sensitive girls (fast and easy though it may be, it is indeed love they want) eschewing neat and tidy vocals for not-quite-there harmonies, the better to articulate the portrayal of the smallest personal dilemma as cataclysmic emotional drama. Listen to "Undo Everything" immediately after "Remember (Walking In The Sand)" and then tell me I'm full of shit.

And with that, Sweet Revenge neatly sidesteps all of my normal defenses against sheer attitude as fundamental currency. That's mostly because this time it's not just for attitude's sake but actually informs the songs rather than merely existing outside of them (or, worse, taking their place). Also, like the Shangri-Las, said attitude has more than one note, sometimes simultaneously. Bangs can offer up the title track's vituperative "I'm smarter than I look and you're dumber than you know" as well as the dejected "You meet me on the dance floor/And then you cheat me out of the dance" (from "Scorpi-Oh") and not only be equally convincing on either but also make them both sound as though they spring from the same place.

I probably shouldn't belabor the point. Suffice it to say that Sweet Revenge wisely backs up the promises that the band makes throughout. The zippy and spirited rock of the abovementioned songs sets the tone; "Into You," for instance, stands as possibly the best female cock rock since "Volcano Girls." The keen and hurtling "Docudrama," meanwhile, forges Sarah Utter's voice into some glorious cross between Belinda Carlisle and Robin Zander, which is appropriate, since the song itself is "Lust To Love" melded with "He's A Whore." And then, of course, there's the band's version of Cheap Trick's "Southern Girls," which wisely chooses not to attempt to reinvent the wheel and is home to an unforced (and possibly unintentional) vocal trill in the first chorus that sounds exactly like what Robin Z. himself would do (and has done, I might point out). A cynic might note that that closing cover nicely pads out Sweet Revenge to just barely over 30 minutes, justifying the full-album sticker price. I will leave such brutes to ponder just why the Leader of the Pack would be hanging out in a candy store, which should get them off my back for a while.

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