No Love Lost
San Diego-based outfit Louis XIV have toured with The Killers, played T In The Park, self-released a debut album and are now touring the UK. Newly signed to Atlantic, 'Finding Out True Love Is Blind' is the first single from The Best Little Secrets Are Kept. Anyway, enough with the background - I know what you're thinking: Is it any good? Well...
From the obligatory opening drum lick, minimalist bass line and innocuous panting, it can only get better and as soon as the distorted axe kicks in, it becomes clear that Louis draw massively on the pared-down confrontational sound of Richard Hell & The Voidoids and The Velvet Underground, albeit with a superior production philosophy. And vocalist Jason Hill takes it even further by not simply nodding in the direction of the aforementioned Dicky Hell but grabbing him by the arm and forcing him to go for 3 course meal and a bit of a dance.
Lyrically, it's a predatory tongue-in-cheek run-through of sexual categorisation, or put more simply, a guy running through a list of chicks he wants to bed. And of course the realisation that true love is blind. Pretty demanding stuff I think you'll agree - and to be honest, it doesn't really display the "rapier wit" mentioned in the promo garb - though intellectual stimulation probably ain't the point anyhow.
So, all in all, you're probably getting the impression I don't like it - not quite. The guitar hooks may not be killer but they're funky enough to get your feet moving and the lyrics will probably sound immeasurably more boss when pumped out at 3000 decibels in a sweaty club and screamed out by young nubile art-rock scene-sters clad in battered, skin-tight Lou Reed t-shirts and skinny jeans. Oh, to be young again...