Standing In The Way Of Control
- Gossip
- Band Name: Gossip
- Record Label: Kill Rock Stars
- Release Date: Jan 24, 2006
- Critic Score
- Most active
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91Gut-wrenching, foot-stomping punk. [Feb 2006, p.87]
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B+ Somebody has nearly DustBustered the "garage" right out of their gorgeously messy garage-rock sound. [27 Jan 2006, p.84]
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Ditto can wail like a gospel singer with bugs under her skin, or quietly sing with an almost palpable vulnerability, and her range suits The Gossip's jagged, bluesy post-punk well.
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80Positively sneers with attitude. [Jan/Feb 2006, p.94]
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Ditto and company take indie-rock in a direction many of its fans are not used to, in that the focus is mostly about the human voice and the way the musicians compliment the singer's attack.
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80Long-time fans might be a bit weirded out by the shift, but a few seconds hearing Ditto channel Peggy Lee on the smoky torch burner Coal To Diamonds should assuage their fears.
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80Balances restraint and abandon in a near-perfect ritual tease. [#71, p.99]
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They now play with a heads-down resolve that is thrilling.
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It's hard not to enjoy being alive while listening to this album. [25 Feb 2006, p.31]
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70To be honest this album has been down the pub all day; it doesn't care that you have to go to work in three hours time; it has just burst into your room and demanded the keys to your car and that bottle of Bombay Saphire you were saving for your birthday.
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70[The Gossip] have evolved a blend of rough and impassioned garage-soul that owes as much to Tina Turner, Peggy Lee and The Ronettes as it does to Sonic Youth and The White Stripes. [Mar 2006, p.96]
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70Showcase[s] a band revelling in their powers, in thrilling control of their screeching rock 'n' roll abandon. [Mar 2006, p.107]
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Think Au Pairs or Delta 5, but filtered through Bikini Kill and the Rapture.
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The Gossip's melodies are infectious and their beats propulsive enough... to get the sk8er kids to drop the self-conscious posturing and dance a little.
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68While the tight playing and vocal pyrotechnics are impressive, Ditto's narrow lyrical scope gets really redundant.
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Fun and frequently powerful.
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The Gossip's instrumentation could use some more low-end meat on its bones. [#12, p.91]
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While the songs on their third recorded set are confident, compositionally astute and capable of slotting into any indie-disco DJ's mid-set surge towards an electric peak, they more often than not sound like the sum of parts, rather than the frenzied party jams deployed by the band at their scintillating live shows.
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60Unfortunately, the disc highlights a new hole: storytelling. [Feb 2006, p.92]
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At times they try to get over with passion in place of proper tunes... but this is still a righteous, life-affirming ride.
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The group [is] at it's best when it stays close to it's R & B foundation. Standing in the Way of Control expands the Gossip's pallette, but the keepers here hug tight to the rump.
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50It's confident and cohesive, but the precision may not be the Gossip's ideal sound.
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This is a transitional album: many of the songs seem underwritten without all that noise on top; sometimes it sounds as if the band is still trying to figure out what to do with its tense, restrained new sound. [23 Jan 2006]
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 9 out of 10
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Mixed: 0 out of 10
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Negative: 1 out of 10
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stevee1One hit wonders.
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EinarJ.7
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PierreV9Patti Smith meets Aretha Franklin for some unadorned disco-punk. A very good surprise!