Sahara Hotnights Kiss & Tell

[RCA; 2004]

Rating: 3.5/5

Styles: ’70s garage rock
Others: Mooney Suzuki, The White Stripes, The Hives


Sometimes as a hard-nosed music critic, you have to eventually put your dukes down and let the music envelop your soul and make you dance. So who do you dance for? Well, right now, Sahara Hotnights' Kiss & Tell showcases a tremendously convincing gravitational pull that completely hypnotizes my heavy shoes to move awkwardly. With its '70s drenched garage anthems, Sahara Hotnights' musical formula has enough street credibility to render any music lover spellbound with each passing track on the record. So I listen to Sahara Hotnights! Fuck you! Where are you hiding your copy of The Hives' Tyrannosaurus Hives, eh? It's the same shit done by better looking people. And that's that!

Seriously, Sahara Hotnights' musical formula has been slightly altered since its groundbreaking Jennie Bomb, but the grit and passion remains a compellingly important factor on Kiss & Tell. Jennie Bomb exploded on the scene a few years ago and introduced fans to a rigid blueprint of garage rock. And while the commercial market is salivating at the potential success of these Swedish rock dolls, listeners must remember that Sahara Hotnights have earned its stripes. With this, the band can let its sound evolve and a respectable niche is achieved. That is the case for Sahara Hotnights, meddling between underground leather clad garage babes and commercial accessibility. This is evident on tracks like "Who Do You Dance For?" and "Empty Heart," appealing to a surplus of music fans with its catchy melodies and rhythms. But the truth remains that these girls can rock, and do it well enough to make everyone get up and dance.

The only downfall to Sahara Hotnights evolutionary sound is its middle-of-the-road attributes. To some fans, its sound may not be as gritty and hardcore as expected. To others, Sahara Hotnights may be too tenacious. But the fact remains that Sahara Hotnights has comfortably settled in a respectable niche, and on tracks like "Walk On The Wire," Sahara Hotnights prove that it is a respectable and marvelous outfit of determined and unwavering women. Ahh, God bless women in leather and jeans!

1. Who do you dance for?
2. Hot night crash
3. Empty heart
4. Walk on the wire
5. Mind over matter
6. Stupid tricks
7. Nerves
8. Stay/stay away
9. Keep calling my baby
10. Difference between love and hell
11. Hangin'