Shanna Kiel, Orphan

I’d bet a psychologist would have a field day with my weird attraction to women who could probably kick my ass. I’ve always been fascinated by tough, angry, musical ladies like, say, the Distillers’ Brody Dalle, Kathleen Hanna, Kim Gordon, Atari Teenage Riot’s Hanin Elias, Joan Jett, or, yes, the walking trainwreck that is Courtney Love (I draw the line at Karen O, though; she just scares me). I’ve got no idea why this is the case, really, and I’m not sure I even want to speculate; all I know is that there’s something about a tough girl with a guitar, spitting angry lyrics over a roaring rock blast that makes me smile.

Which is pretty much where I am with former Midwest-dweller Shanna Kiel’s debut solo effort, Orphan. The album’s a short-ish set of driving, angry rock songs with plenty of ragged, dirty-sounding guitar shrapnel and Kiel’s cigarette-scratched voice, and it hits a number of the female-rocker touchstones I mentioned above. The vocals resemble Dalle’s at several points and Love’s at others, a few of the songs echo Sonic Youth’s Gordon-fronted efforts, and the raging guitars bring to mind everybody from the Distillers to Alkaline Trio. There’s a sloppy, staggering, Nirvana-esque feel to several of the songs, to boot, particularly “Oh My” and “Song for the Hoodwink,” although I can’t say I’d credit Love with that specific influence.

The high point of Orphan has to be the sing-song-y, Kim Gordon-ish “Lost Our Vows,” which kicks off with a particularly nice line: “With this drop of blood / I thee wed.” The whole thing coalesces Kiel’s various influences and musical kin into a solid mass of fiery, hard-charging rock, and it works quite nicely. The rest of the tracks are up and down from there — some good (“Kismet,” “Song for the Hoodwink,” “Rotting From the Inside,” the last third of “Sharpen the Dull”), some not-so-good (“Oh My,” “Princess and the Pea,” “Chariots of Silk”). Orphan‘s no mind-blower, it’s true, but taken as a whole, it’s a decently entertaining solo effort that makes me wonder what Kiel’s old band Sullen sounded like. And hey, that’s not a bad thing…