She Wants Revenge
http://www.shewantsrevenge.com

styles: post-punk, electro
others: Joy Division, Interpol, Fischerspooner

She Wants Revenge
Geffen, 2006
rating: 0.5/5
reviewer: dave gurney


Do you hear that? Off in the distance... like a chiming of some sort? There it goes again. "Ch-ching!" Oh, it's the sound of Geffen's cash registers being filled with youngsters' allowances. What's that they're buying? Oh, some spiritless pap from a couple of beautiful boys from L.A. calling themselves She Wants Revenge. Well, put me down for a CD, a t-shirt, a wristband, and some band-branded eyeliner, okay?

Maybe I'm just getting cynical in my old(er) age, but is this for real? I mean, these guys sound like an incredibly desperate attempt to cash in on the neo-post-punk bandwagon. Listening to this album actually makes me feel ashamed for having listened to Interpol or The Rapture or any of the other bands of the past three or four years who have embraced a sound with its roots in the early 1980s. At least those bands seem to have pulses. She Wants Revenge trudges along like a couple of guys going through the motions, complete with vapid lyrics that, if you listen to them, will have you wondering why you never tried to get any of the poems that you wrote in high school published.

I think that "These Things" is the single being pushed, so you're likely to hear it somewhere. It's mid-tempo melancholy posturing at its most mind-numbing. The singer is obviously mimicking Daniel Kessler mimicking Ian Curtis, except he's a bit more nasally, making him sound like a detached Fred Schneider at times. At least he mentions that a girl "pleasures herself" in the bathroom. That's bound to get someone's blood boiling. Just not mine.

1. Red Flags and Long Nights
2. These Things
3. I Don't Want to Fall in Love
4. Out of Control
5. Monologue
6. Broken Promises for Broken Hearts
7. Sister
8. Disconnect
9. Us
10. Someone Must Get Hurt
11. Tear You Apart
12. She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not