The Kills
Little Bastards
Release Date: Dec 11, 2020
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Garage Punk, Indie Rock
Record label: Domino
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Album Review: Little Bastards by The Kills
Excellent, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
A good sign that a band is on a creative hot streak is the amount of music they release outside of their albums. As the B-sides and rarities collection Little Bastards shows, Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart were barely keeping up with their muse during their first decade as the Kills. Named for the Roland 880 sequencer/drum machine that gave the duo's early work its signature throb, Little Bastards is an apt description of these stray songs that deserve more love.
Based on rating 4/5
If history will likely remember The Kills as a slightly more cult concern than many of their garage rock peers, then 'Little Bastards' - a collected b-sides and rarities release amassed from the first decade of their tenure as a band - underlines the idea that Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince were always more suited to the shadowy peripheries of the mainstream anyway. Though a round-up such as this technically shines a light on a group of tracks that, at their simplest, weren't good enough to make it onto a studio album, 'Little Bastards' doesn't feel that way; before the duo began to up their polish around 2008's 'Midnight Boom' (the very end of the period represented here), The Kills revelled in scratchy, caustic rock'n'roll and thus, the lo-fi charm of 'No Wow' bonus track 'Half Of Us' or 'London Hates You' (part 'Be My Baby' drumbeat, part dead-eyed lyrical listing) nestle in happily among the recogniseable bones of the band. Recently-released attic find 'Raise Me' prowls along on handclaps and Alison's vocal snarl - a characteristic lack of musical fat to be found, while a trio of covers (Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Howlin' Wolf, Dock Boggs) hammer home the outlier roots of the pair.
Based on rating 8
It's been nearly two decades since The Kills graced our ears with their unapologetic debut album 'Keep On Your Mean Side'. Recorded in two weeks, the album was released on indie label Domino, who the band remain with to this day, charted in the UK Top 50 and marked the beginning of a musical career for duo Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince that would only grow and prosper as the 00's progressed. 'Little Bastards' is a collection of rarities and B-sides that were recorded during this decade that have now been remastered and brought together as one.
'Little Bastards'
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