The Kills
Girl Of The Year Winner

She Kills hail from a small town in Cumbria and are as much musically as geographically remote from fickle London. This is not at all a bad thing. True, opening two tracks "The Angel One" and "To Be Forgotten" aren't exactly embracing either the ice-crystal chill or the hedonism of twenty-first century art, but then arguably they aren't temporary enough to do so. The opening track is sweet but replayable, laced with a chiming lead guitar and (here's something that's gone out of fashion) above all melody. Very pleasant indeed. Later comes a somewhat obtuse effort with trippy synths called, impenetrably, "Torment of Agnes". Slightly less successful than the straightforward three-minute songs, but the bubbles-bursting-to-the-surface effect of the keyboard backing is a nice touch. Fourth song "Liberty Field" is more in the vein of the first two but suffers from last track on demo syndrome - it's not quite any of the other ones.

Minor gripes: that lovely crystalline guitar sound, and general recording quality, means there's no excuse for the vocals being so quiet the lyrics are inaudible. To these ears it actually works quite well in places (cf: late '80s/early '90s gutsier Belle and Sebastian precursors The Orchids and their similarly whispery male lead) but it does cause a little suspicion about said lyrics. I for one cannot endorse any musical endeavour entirely without knowing what's being said. Musically, however, it's hard to pick holes in either concept or execution. A blow struck for the provinces, really...

Contact:

Ben Riddick

10 Sea View

Prospect

Cumbria

CA5 2LE