Spinnerette - Ghetto Love EP Review
Review of Spinnerette’s EP Ghetto Love released through Anthem.
Oh boy. This makes me VERY HAPPY INDEED. For I am among the vast number that have sorely missed Brody Dalle’s dirty purr since The Distillers fell off the face of the earth. With a slick new hair do and a newfound ability to keep her mascara on her eyelashes, Brody’s sound has followed suit. With the likes of Adam Freeland queuing up to put the remix gloves on, the sound of Spinnerette is Brody gone glossy and grown up.
That said, though, Brody most certainly hasn’t lost her edge. She might be singing, rather than growling a whole lot more but the trademark chugging guitars are all present and correct (courtesy of the lady herself and fellow Distiller Tony Bevilacqua), as are the blood-lust lyrics and best of all… that gasp. Most engineers cut out the intake of breath before a singer lets loose. But when Brody Dalle’s up against the microphone, that intake of breath carries more weight of venom than a lifetime of Lily Allen’s tiresome barbed comments. And it feels like a lifetime since we’ve been gasped at.
The opening track, ‘Ghetto Love’ is a monstrous drawl, monotonous, beefy basslines and old-school guitar riffs, slung low and drenched in squealing keyboards. ‘Valium Knights’ could easily have been salvaged from the wreckage of The Distillers and sees Brody at her husky vocal best. The style in which she sings could so easily descend into boy-rock cliché, or, worse, a sub-par Courtney shlock-rock screech. It is, thankfully, neither. It’s just alluring. Plain and simple.
Track three, ‘Distorting a Code’ is about as close to a ballad as Brody Dalle is likely to get. Just so you don’t think they’re getting too soft, Spinnerette mix things up a little, chopping up guitar parts, reversing the vocals and generally getting everything in a spin (appropriately enough). Finally, ‘Bury My Heart’ is slow, layered and brooding, ending with a flourish: a blood-curdling scream. So. All those mourning the passing of The Distillers can stop right here. There’s a new band in town.
Hayley Avron