The Kills were among the most promising of the "the" bands swarming at the onset of the 00's. Their debut album, Keep on Your Mean Side, was made of sparking wires and busted lips. Their live show was a sex charged psycho drama. They were epically cool. My impression of 2005's No Wow, was sadly close to its title. It's hard to say why it underwhelmed, really, as its grungy blues sound didn't veer far from the duo's debut. It was even more boiled down and primal, but missing the spark of the earlier work. Now two years later they've been mainly bumped from my mind, usurped in the minimal boy/girl team department by Prinzhorn Dance School, who went that extra step of stripping both the blues and the sex from their song skeletons.
The band's comeback single, "U.R.A. Fever," is, uh, confusing. Jamie Hince and Alison Mossshart (Hotel and VV, to be dramatic) deliver a quasi-rap over an idle telephone tone. The goofy stream of consciousness lyrics aren't nearly as cool and menacing as they seem to think they are. Random phrases aren't always evocative or mysterious. Fleeting moments of interestingly trashed guitar erupt, but meekly retreat just as fast. "You only really had her when you were a fever," goes the refrain. Sweaty delirium was compelling, it's true.