KH and a correction

Correction

Well much thanks to several of my readers who took the time to let me know that I am no longer the pretentious audiophile that I once was. Apparently the Muse album came out over a month ago. So yeah that’s a trip to the local record shop. This better be worth it after the let down that I unleash upon you now.

Kill Hannah – Until theres nothing left of us

Preface: it’s been about 7 years that I have followed this band. 2 minor releases 1 major label release and now their latest. It has seemed like a never ending wave of forward momentum I honestly felt that the next album could be that final step.

Summary: The kill Hannah albums have always suffered from the KISS syndrome. For those of you that don’t know what that is I will explain. Kiss put out several albums before they became the mainstream monsters they unfortunately are now. Neither of these earlier albums did very well despite the traveling shows selling out shows across the country. It wasn’t until Kiss created a live album that they really blew through the roof because none of their previous work allowed the bands rawness and energy shine through.

Kill Hannah suffers the same syndrome. I have yet to take someone to a show that did not come out the other end as a believer. However when it comes to the studio process the band ends out sounding over produced (for ever and never). There’s nothing wrong with production see (melancholy & the infinite sadness – S,P) and in fact in this latest album I thought the producing staff did a fine job. The added some very nice touches and orchestration to try to fill up the tracks. However the extended heavy drum and light piano intros are straight out of the current pop goth playbook which makes me think that the producers were trying to make a record that AFI already did this year. Hey if your going to emulate may as well go with the last of your genre to debut at #1. Unfortunately there is a problem in this approach.

The songs. They…. They just aren’t there. You know its not going to be a good thing when the first track that catches my eye. The first track that really makes me feel ok this album is alright, was not written by Kill Hannah. It’s a Tears for Fears song. It’s really good, probably too good as perhaps the other material would have seemed more consistent and therefore more acceptable.

I would never consider Matt Devine a songsmith even though his journals and writing shows that his prose is high level. You could always count on him for some cleverness a simple turn of phrase, its just not there in this album. Bleak landscapes multiple references to lightning references to phrases in older songs. It just seems almost phoned in. I’m beginning to wonder if the desperations of youth are slipping from Matt’s mind in these recent years.

I will give KH the benefit of the doubt. There are enough small moments in this album that I can assume that they will find a way to market this into some new areas and I bet a lot of these songs translate great to the live stage. The album in my mind however is a disappointment. First listen, hate, second listen, acceptance. Third listen, hope, fourth listen, clarity. It’s just not a great album. Too many tracks to skip over, a missed opportunity in my mind and I hope that they see enough chartage/profitability to warrant a third try.

Best:

Milky Way

Decent:

Believer
Lips like morphine
Statues without Eyes

Passable:

Crazy Angel
Scream

Bad:

The Collapse
Black Poison Blood
Love you to death
Songs that Saved my Life

Pick it up on Amazon when they start selling them for about 5 bucks. Note: Congrats to them on this release as they did crack the Billboard top 200 for the first time as of August 19^th.