My ears question whether this experiment is working, yet in my heart I know The Courtneys remain on the level at which they need to be right now. That last full-length impressed a lot of people (including us) and this pretty lil’ 7-inch is all we’ve heard from them in awhile, and they decide to throw some rapping into the friend-punk mix? Didn’t we all learn that this doesn’t work more than a decade ago? HOLD IT: Yes, we were taught well what NOT to do with hip-hop, so from here on out we’ve got to figure out what TO do with hip-hop. “Mars Attacks” takes a stab at it, and I’m not going to argue with the results as much as I’m going to posit that it can only get better from here. And the melodic hooks sink deep enough to implant themselves in your pleasure receptors (that warm sensation isn’t from the drugs, dude), the Bangles harmonies ringing strong and clear until the even-more-confounding b-side remix floats in on cartoon wheels and florescent flames. The remix has so little to do with the original track, and that’s what I like about it. There’s nothing worse than an A-B transfer that does little to expand on the initial ride. Not what I would have expected from these ladies, and all for the better. The watermelon-colored wax looks awesome, too; cheers all around.
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