Weekly Release Spotlight: The Raveonettes

Posted on 10/19/2009

The Raveonettes

In and Out of Control

[Vice]

The Raveonettes may have a gimmick, but it's a good gimmick, and it's one the band will freely admit to. The Danish duo pulls its simple structures, stunning harmonies and dark imagery from '50s and '60s rock and adds a layer of '80s and '90s-inspired shoegaze to it. At first it might seem like an unlikely combination, but considering The Jesus and Mary Chain's reverence for all things Phil Spector, it makes perfect sense. Sharin Foo and Sune Rose Wagner are not simply building not only on their own influences, but also on their influences' influences.

Swinging between noisy, wandering feedback and cool Scandinavian restraint, In and Out of Control is an apt title for the duo's fourth album. Heavily influenced both by the tragic tales of Ronnie Spector and the Ronettes, as well as the gloom and doom of the Velvet Underground and Suicide, even the Raveonettes' darkest lyrics are delivered matter-of-factly. The blatantly violent "Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)" is a happy-sounding singalong, with the angelic refrain of "Those fuckers stay in your head." The song titles alone set the theme – "Suicide," "Oh, I Buried You Today," "Gone Forever" – but the album isn't a downer. The songs have just the right amount of energy to keep them upbeat with just a hint of something sinister in the background.

On paper, In and Out of Control sounds like a throwback to bygone eras. But listening to it, it never stops sounding distinctly like a Raveonettes album. While they do draw heavily from the past, Foo and Wagner have struck that delicate balance of modernity and nostalgia that is so rarely successful. Maybe it's the logical and detached nature of their Nordic roots, or maybe it's an innate coolness – but whatever it is, it works.

Written by Dana Raidt, Radio K volunteer.