Ignite – The Raveonettes
Sometimes it’s refreshing to hear a record that sounds exactly like you’ll expect it to sound. Today’s example is Raven in the Grave, the newest output from The Raveonettes. For their last record I lamented that they had never quite put together the breakout effort I kept expecting from them. With another album from them, I’m increasingly thinking that there is no breakthrough to be had. They’re just going to keep turning out slight variations on the same theme, and that’s just fine.
The big hooks are a little bit more sparse this time around, with only really two tracks that jump out of the speakers at you (‘Recharge & Revolt’ and ‘Ignite’). On the other hand, the excessive faux-grittiness that plagued the last record has also mostly been expunged. What remains is some very nice harmonies, and the washed out reverb of guitars turned up way too loud. There’s the slow burner (‘War in Heaven’) and the girl-group harmonies (‘Forget That You’re Young’) and the gorgeous encore (‘My Time’s Up’).
The only real downside here is an occasional drift toward the soporific. ‘War in Heaven,’ for example, is a nice enough song but it drags quite a bit and doesn’t have the energy to sustain itself. It takes over 3 minutes to really hit its stride by which time you’ve already drifted away. Same goes for ‘Apparitions’ which never quite gets going.
By far the choice track is ‘Ignite,’ which exemplifies the very best elements of their sound. It starts with a real kick of a bass beat, which leads right into a nice big guitar riff, and an opening verse that offers their best Jesus and Mary Chain impressions. And then there’s a surprisingly beautiful and tender chorus. It’s a great song, the closest this album comes to ‘Suicide,’ their high-water mark as a group in my opinion.