Album title:
The Human Value
Artist:
The Human Value
Label:
Big Deal
The Kills are a popular American boy-girl beat combo with leather jackets & shades, sexy, scuzzy guitars, and peculiar names, but too much blues. The Raveonettes are a popular boy-girl beat combo with the guitars and leather jackets, but are too blonde, bright-eyed, and Danish. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have too many members, and are all men, but have the shades and the guitars sorted. The Human Value are a soon-to-be-popular American boy-girl new-wave beat combo with peculiar names, low, scuzzy guitars, gothic melodies and sensuous female vocals, who are very reminiscent of Siouxsie & The Banshees - and they are perfect. Siouxsie and Severin were the boy-girl core of goth-punk legend, and were real. Hiram and Turu are the boy-girl core of LA's Human Value, who have updated that sound, as every generation insists on doing with great music, so they're not really real - but this eponymous debut album is intense and atmospheric; creepy, sexy, and exciting. You'll be 'Spellbound'. [Ally Brown]