No need to pine for 'Lust Lust Lust'

The Raveonettes are a Danish pop-rock duo with Wagner on guitar and Sharin Foo on bass and vocal. The band's name derives from the 1960s-era New York girl group The Ronettes and Buddy Holly's raucous single "Rave On." The Raveonettes' name itself gives insight into the group's contradictory mix of sweet, melodious harmonies coupled with frantic and excited sounds. The group is best known for integrating feedback into their music, recreating the feel of a live performance saturated with energy, intensity and grit. Their songs are simultaneously dark, simple harmonies and displays of complex electric instrumentation, noise and driving beats.

The first song of the album embodies the signature paradox of The Raveonettes' sound. "Aly Walk With Me" is in many ways like Dickens' proverbial "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times." The track has an interesting bass line that is lounge-y and cool, the kind of music that inspires you to bob your head. The vocals, simple and direct, play less of a role in the foreground of the track and instead build an almost passive sound with the bass. They create a stage onto which The Raveonettes introduce their electric instrumentation and combinations of noise. Sadly, this is where the track loses itself in its own creativity. Admirably seeking to push creative norms within the genre by moving past sleepy lyrics and melodious bass lines, The Raveonettes cross the line to noise that can be off-putting.

If listeners are so discomfited by the noise of "Aly, Walk With Me" that they skip to the next track, they are greeted with the song "Hallucinations." The title is appropriate for the music. Once again, the lyrics' lightness evokes a dream-like state in which the vocals become a passive instrument to segue to and from the group's sonic experimentation. The sound of the feedback in "Hallucinations" works well with the overall feel of the track, making the song one of the catchiest on the album and the most likely to find itself at home on any mood-setting alternative playlist.

The 1960s girl band The Ronettes inspired The Raveonettes' music as well as their name. The track "You Want Candy" is the most upbeat on "Lust Lust Lust," inspired by lyrics that speak of an ambiguous desire for sweets. The song's vocals are reminiscent of Motown-era tunes with repetitive choruses and dainty, deceivingly innocent lyrics. The Raveonettes have juxtaposed this lightness with music that is more akin to the heavy and quick-paced guitar rifts of the post-punk rock era. The energy is high in this song, but the over-conceptualization creates a sound that distances the audience from the music despite the energy.

The Raveonettes' third album definitely scratches at something intriguing: 1950s-inspired lyrics and harmonies mixed with hard-hitting, electronically infused rock. In spite of this interesting concept (or perhaps because of it), the music gets lost in the excessive employment of feedback and studio noise in the tracks. By the end of the album the listener tires of the "feedback" solos and the noise that pervades "Lust Lust Lust." The album fails to connect with its audience, partly because the vocals are so faint and distant that the singers deprecate their own vocal and lyrical abilities. The guitar and electronic sounds overpower the listener-friendly vocal verse the listener most craves. All you can help but ask for is some Ronettes rather than The Raveonettes.

Paws: 2/5