Review Summary: The third album of the Danish duo is a cohesive, chorus-less, loud record that sways between their past and future.
The Raveonettes are an indie rock duo from Copenhagen, Denmark which gained wider recognition in the middle of the previous decade with the single “Love in a Trashcan”. A quality pop song based on early rock n’ roll aesthetics, with a killer guitar tone and sweet harmonic vocals. Before that, they had released the 2002 mini album “Whip It on” and their debut 2003 album “Chain Gang of Love”. Both releases were heavily inspired by The Velvet Underground, The Everly Brothers and The Jesus and Mary Chain’s music and all songs played solely in B minor and B major guitar tunings.
While their debut was an energetic noisy mix of early rock n’ roll, guitar feedback, and ethereal vocals with great party songs, and an overall raw feeling, their second attempt “Pretty in Black” on Columbia records in 2005 was the opposite. Cleaner guitars, more pop structured songs, and over polished production that gave a plastic and distant feeling to the album. Even though I quite enjoyed it, it left me with the impression that they may have tried too much for a chance to break into the mainstream, in a period were the indie rock revival was on its peak. Nonetheless, with that release they managed to get extended radio airplay which made them known to an audience that would have never heard of them otherwise.
For their third attempt, the band had to choose between the more commercial direction of “Pretty in Black” and the distorted noise of “Chain Gang of Love”. Eventually, “Lust Lust Lust” released in 2007, and surprisingly it was a mix of these two. The Raveonettes had abandoned the clean refined sound and returned to their fuzzed-out roots whereas keeping things simple in songwriting. They had also left Columbia records, to join Fierce Panda, an indie record label based in London. A move that was possibly beneficial to them, after had created two albums on a major label company, in terms of company needs/sales and the band’s artistic freedom.
“Lust Lust Lust” feels like a spontaneous made album, but not hasty, without sophisticated structures and without a distinct hit single track. The whole album is based on distorted 50’s-60’s guitar riffs laid over feedback with basic drumming patterns just to keep the tempo and rock n’ roll vocal rhythms sang with shoegaze style.
It is a minimal stripped-down bleak album in terms of sound and themes, that manages to maintain The Raveonettes’ dark romance. ‘Aly, Walk with Me’ and ‘Lust’ are perfect examples. Sexy, drum and bass structured songs with dark guitar riffs, and a lot of guitar feedback instead of choruses, which are mainly absent throughout the whole album. The band sounds more mature in all aspects. ‘Dead Sound’, ‘Hallucinations’ and ‘Black Satin’ are tracks where the band is showcasing all the experience gained from their past works, as they manage to maintain the poppiness of “Pretty in Black”, and with certain tweaks to create memorable dark hymns of nostalgia.
Whilst the first half of the album is strong and flows effortlessly, the second half has its weak moments. ‘You Want the Candy’ lacks of originality as it sounds like a homage to The Jesus and Mary Chain’s ‘I Want Candy’ ending up having many similarities, and ‘Expelled from Love’ feels like a Velvet Underground filler. Also, it’s in the second part where the electronic drumming starts to get a bit monotonous. ‘Blitzed’ shares the same drum patterns with ‘Dead Sound’ which makes it a bit repetitive, even though the double guitar riffing works really well. Towards the end, the album becomes softer, with slow songs in the style of The Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly, with an added feedback in the background creating a dark and nostalgic atmosphere.
Sun Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo took the risk, stepped back from the commercial indie rock revival mania, and managed to create a very strong third album. “Lust Lust Lust” may have its weak moments but overall it displays the maturity, the artistic commitment and evolution of the band.
