| And it is a blackly addictive one where the spirits of the Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth and the Royal Trux are mixed up to this result; a potion of jerky, scratchy, garage/blues classics like 'Cat Claw' and 'Black Rooster', the contrast between 'VV's oddly sweet PJ Harvey homage vocals and 'Hotel's' dirty grunting stark. New single 'Fried my Little Brains', comes on like a alterna pop classic, seriously tight and seriously wired. 'Hitched' blurs the boundaries between love and hate ('get my name stitched on your lip so you wont get hitched') and the title track pounds home its mantra laying down fetters with the repetition. All of which raises The Kills to the very top of the New Rock. So now it hurts, so good it doesn't matter. Alistair Hann | 
