Altsounds - The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control [Album]

Have you ever had one of those moments where you first hear a song and have to ask everyone in the room to be quiet, turn the stereo up or move closer to the speakers (or all three) in order to be sure of what you just heard. “What was that Billy-Ray?” you ask yourself “Don’t break my heart, my eggy bready heart”? Sometimes, as with that example, you want to check because what you think you heard just doesn’t make sense, but sometimes...sometimes...well sometimes you just want to hear it again because you can’t fathom just why anyone would sing “Boys who rape should all be destroyed.” The Raveonettes have done just that though on their fourth album, “In and Out of Control.”

I dunno, maybe it’s just me but I can’t for the life of me get my head around that lyric (and song title – it’s actually called ‘Boys Who Rape (Should all be Destroyed)’). It’s just an odd choice on so many levels. What is perhaps even odder though is that it works brilliantly, as it is backed by a wonderful, gentle little pop tune that shares nothing with its lyrical subject. It’s complete and utter brilliance is only rivalled by opening track, and single, ‘Bang!’
Without question a contender for pop song of the year, it makes even more of a laughing stock of those who spend millions of pounds producing X Factor in order to manufacture the world’s next pop sensation(s). The majority of the world’s population wouldn’t know great pop music if it raped them and then wrote a song entitled ‘Pop That Rapes (Should just be Enjoyed)’.

The thing is, The Raveonettes are not exactly new to pop, it’s essentially what they do, just filtered through guitar pedals to add lots of snap and crackle to the pop songs they write. “In and Out of Control” is however their most immediate, hook-laden album to date, owing as much to John Hughes movie soundtracks as they always do to Phil Spector. ‘Last Dance’ in particular sounds like it could have been written for their own remake of Pretty in Pink...’Pretty in Black’ I suppose. And that, the title of their second album, pretty much sums up The Raveonettes on “In and Out of Control” – the dark lyrical content of drug overdoses, suicide and rape delivered with all the beauty such topics are bereft of.

Whilst “In and Out of Control” may well feature one of the most unexpected song titles of the year, what’s even more unexpected is that The Raveonettes have gone from producing worthy, if unspectacular albums to suddenly producing one of the finest albums of a particularly fine year. Nobody saw it coming...but then most of the world never will.

Track List:

1 Bang!
2 Gone Forever
3 Last Dance
4 Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)
5 Heart of Stone
6 Oh, I Buried You Today
7 Suicide
8 D.R.U.G.S.
9 Breaking Into Cars
10 Break Up Girls!
11 Wine