The Kills "Blood Pressures" [2011]

Scratching to finally get out of the dirty garage and onto the Coachella stage, The Kills had had it with slumming by 2011 and, the way fellow redux-douchebags The Black Keys did, added a bunch of studio production that took them from being a band who sounded like they didn't give a shit to one sounding like they're trying way too hard. Singer Alison Mosshart -- who resembles a preppie grad student on a lost weekend bender -- channels her inner Martha Davis, to ill-effect. Worse, at times guitarist/singer Jamie Hince tries to put on a John Lennon cap that clearly doesn't fit. All in service of the same desperation, of course: who in their right mind wants to spend their whole life in a shitty van playing dinky clubs in Omaha and Cincinnati that reek of stale beer and vomit? That said, is grossly selling out by way of soccer-chant choruses really the way to go? And finally, how long can an indie band truly expect to last with the accompaniment of a stupid pre-programmed drum track? Questions like these are probably daunting enough for The Kills to not have the guts to ask them, but come to her senses and I'd expect to see Mosshart back in the MBA program before long.