The Kills – Little Bastards (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

The Kills – Little Bastards (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:05:12 minutes | 766 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Domino Recording Co

The Kills have compiled an extraordinary career spanning b-sides and rarities album titled, appropriately, Little Bastards. The songs date back from the band’s first 7-inch singles in 2002 through to 2009. All of the material has been newly remastered for release on 2xLP, CD & Digital and marks the first ever vinyl pressing for some of these tracks.

The compilation includes the unreleased and never-before-heard demo Raise Me from the 2008-2009 Midnight Boom era. Other highlights include I Call It Art from the Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited covers compilation, the brilliant Midnight Boom digital bonus track Night Train, a blistering performance of Love Is A Deserter from an XFM radio session and a handful of classic American roots songs performed with the kind of bruising delivery they’re famous for: Howlin’ Wolfs’ Forty Four, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ I Put A Spell on You and Dock Boggs’ Sugar Baby.

When you only have five studio albums under your belt, releasing a best of is a bit presumptuous. Probably aware of this, American Alison Mosshart and Englishman Jamie Hince opted instead for a compilation of B-sides and rarities. In this great rattle bag of material dating from between 2002 and 2009, the sexiest duo on planet rock’n’roll even slipped a few 360° covers. Very well-chosen covers of songs by Howlin’ Wolf (Forty Four), Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (I Put a Spell on You), Dock Boggs (Sugar Baby) and Serge Gainsbourg (I call it Art aka La Chanson de Slogan) all spice up Little Bastards. This name is in fact a nod to the Roland 880, the favourite instrument of the duo, who nicknamed it Little Bastard. “It […] isn’t strictly a drum machine,” explains Hince. “It’s a sequencer, and an eight-track recorder, with its own drum machine built in, and that’s what we’d record all our beats on”. This minimalist sound is a key part of the DNA of The Kills, made up of stripped-down but incandescent guitars and the sounds of vintage drum machines that always hit their mark. Mosshart’s voice makes this potion of raw, unadorned synthetic rock’n’roll even more venomous. Like on Raise Me, a beautiful and unreleased bluesy demo from the Midnight Boom period, or the cataclysmic version of Love is a Deserter recorded during an XFM radio session. All of this has obviously been remastered, just to make the experience even more powerful. In short, even in this hour-long collection taken from the bottom of the desk drawer, The Kills… kill! – Marc Zisman

Tracklist:
01. The Kills – Superpowerless (Remastered 2020) (03:02)
02. The Kills – Passion Is Accurate (Remastered 2020) (03:29)
03. The Kills – Kiss The Wrong Side (Remastered 2020) (02:57)
04. The Kills – Raise Me (Demo) (Remastered 2020) (03:51)
05. The Kills – Night Train (Remastered 2020) (03:03)
06. The Kills – Half Of Us (Remastered 2020) (03:53)
07. The Kills – London Hates You (Remastered 2020) (03:35)
08. The Kills – I Call It Art (Remastered 2020) (03:06)
09. The Kills – Forty Four (Remastered 2020) (03:14)
10. The Kills – Love Is A Deserter (XFM Session) (Remastered 2020) (03:47)
11. The Kills – The Search For Cherry Red (Remastered 2020) (02:58)
12. The Kills – Magazine (Remastered 2020) (02:01)
13. The Kills – Blue Moon (Remastered 2020) (03:01)
14. The Kills – Jewel Thief (Remastered 2020) (02:46)
15. The Kills – Baby’s Eyes (Remastered 2020) (04:06)
16. The Kills – I Put A Spell On You (Remastered 2020) (02:16)
17. The Kills – Run Home Slow (Remastered 2020) (04:07)
18. The Kills – Weed Killer (Remastered 2020) (02:34)
19. The Kills – The Void (Remastered 2020) (02:54)
20. The Kills – Sugar Baby (Remastered 2020) (04:22)

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