The Last Drop

The Gossip, Standing in the Way of Control - Warning – I bought this album at The Gossip’s show last week. I almost never succumb to the pressure due to the undeniable letdown that occurs from trying to translate great live energy into a good studio track. However, I bought the album out of curiosity rather than reverence. Beth Ditto’s Janice Joplin by way of Katie O vocal style is absolutely killer live and I had to know how they could possibly bottle it up in a studio. Furthermore, the 3 person minimalist sound was actually magnanimous live leading me to wonder if The Gossip had stumbled on a formula similar to The White Stripes or The Yeah Yeah Yeahs – growly, lo-fi melodies that are sharp, yet full. Standing in the Way of Control doesn’t deliver on these measures and confuses you as to how they bubbled to the top of NME’s Cool List for 2006 (Ditto that is).

The main suspect on the album’s poor sound is the sound itself. In an attempt to keep the sound raw and punk, the band uses little or no production to form a cohesive song. Not one bit of mixing to layer in the vocal with the any of the instruments makes Beth sound small and rather “unpunk”. Pretty hard to do since her live shows literally blow you away with her intensity and range. The drums sound garagy, in a bad way – tinny, shallow, and contained. Brace’s bass/guitar does it’s best to be the glue, but there is too much missing to hold it all together. Even during the show, I kept on wanting more meat to the band (no pun intended) – more guitars, maybe a keyboard, anything to help support Ditto’s bluesy wail.

The other problem with the disc is that The Gossip doesn’t know which band it wants to be yet. Most of the album is an attempt at riot grrl punk with pretty awful angry lesbian lyrics that nod more to high school emo than the weight they want (again, no pun intended). Their hits (“Standing in the Way of Control”, “Listen Up”) are better forms of post punk disco that actually stand a chance at being real songs. The remaining slow songs are a brief glimpse at Ditto’s blues range and could have been better if the band knew how to play or record anything but punk. The album itself starts off slow but gains momentum and ends with the best two tracks – remixes of their two singles “Standing in the Way of Control” and “Listen Up”. The remixes shed light into what the band could be with actual production and shaping to their songs. Now that they are signed to a Columbia subsidiary, I hope Rick Rubin will provide this shaping. If so, The Gossip could easily become the indie rock darlings of America that they have worked so hard to be for the UK.