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Italy’s Miss Chain and company have grown quite a bit since their debut 7” on Sonic Jett. Moving away from the blues-based Rolling Stones influence and more into the ’60s girl pop sound, they’ve managed to craft an album that is as contemporary as it is retro.
Mostly, the songs have that dreamy bubblegum quality of The Shangri-Las and some of Phil Spector‘s early work, especially with The Ronettes, though they’re packed with an intense energy that keeps them exciting and captivating, even during a mellower track like “Up All Night.” The psychedelic edge of the mid-‘60s creeps in now and then – a fuzzy guitar here, a spacey, delayed outro there, but these tracks don’t come across as tired rehashings of Nuggets or Pebbles. The band are obviously skilled musicians, and they take a unique approach to their girl-power garage rock by keeping the overdrive low and the lead guitar of Disaster Silva busy with staccato leads.
The subject matter of the lyrics gets quite dark as well, with vocalist Astrid Dante anticipating a nervous breakdown in “Beginning of the End,” describing emotional ups and downs in “Roller Coaster” or telling the tale of an unhappy marriage in “Diary of a Mad Housewife” – and that’s just the first three songs. Songs like “Old Man” and “Mary Anne” continue the blend of bubblegum aesthetic with melancholic feelings, emerging as finely crafted songs that are catchy, but foreboding.
Joey Ramone probably would have liked this one a lot.
