The Raveonettes
In and out of Control

Boys who rape should all be destroyed
Boys who rape should all be destroyed

Three to one girl, how can you win?
One horrid night you hope that it's a bad dream
They rip you to shreds, make you feel useless
You'll never forget those fuckers stay in your head

Boys who rape should all be destroyed
Boys who rape should all be destroyed

I ragazzi che violentano dovrebbero essere tutti distrutti

I ragazzi che violentano dovrebbero essere tutti distrutti

Tre contro una ragazza, come puoi farcela?

Una notte terrificante, speri che sia stato un brutto sogno

Ti strappano a brandelli, ti fanno sentire inutile

Non dimenticherai mai quegli stronzi, rimarranno nella tua mente

I ragazzi che violentano dovrebbero essere tutti distrutti

I ragazzi che violentano dovrebbero essere tutti distrutti

The Raveonettes are a Danish duo, born in 2001 in Copenhagen: Sune Rose Wagner, guitar and vocals, and Sharin Foo, vocals and bass, both born in '73.

He loves Dylan, but it's not felt. He loves Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, the Jesus and Mary Chain and it shows. She loves the Beatles and Velvet Underground. She studied qawwali and Hindustani music, but it's barely noticeable.

They have released eight albums. "In and Out of Control", from 2009, together with its predecessor, "Lust Lust Lust", marked the transition from Sony to the independent label Vice. It captured them at their best, in their archetypal idea of noise pop, in their basic formula:

reinterpreting the Jesus and Mary Chain, more than My Bloody Valentine, in various synchronic keys (lo-fi aesthetics, minimalism, male-female duality) and diachronic (Buddy Holly, Everly Brothers, Ronettes, Crystals, Shirelles, Angels, Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra).

Like the Jesus, they combine guitar feedback layers and distortions with Phil Spector's harmonic lessons. Amidst fuzz and rough sounds, they sketch plain, fragile melodies that are yet murky and alluring. The drum machine imitates the driving percussion of sixties female groups. Sharin's sensual, confidential, serene singing alternates with his, which is unassuming, to use an understatement. The vocal harmonies and choruses are lovely. A dash of New Wave and a dark imagery complete the picture. They paint surreal, hypnotic, somewhat obsessive atmospheres, clearly inspired by David Lynch. The lyrics are raw, unpoetic, direct. They mostly speak of love and its degenerations.

Thus, fast-paced, mischievous, and frantic tracks alternate with slow ballads: true oneiric, Ossianic, or gloomy lamentations without electronic drum percussion, with clear guitar strokes stretched towards languid psych pop drifts.

Nothing too new, but all carried forward with dignity.

Their style is encapsulated in the dichotomy "noise plus melody": it is elegant, nocturnal, volatile. It might be called pop gaze. It seems like the contemplation of a sinister dream and the urge to rise back up when you fall.

The album in question, "In And Out Of Control", is a further conjugation of their typical noise pop matrix: three chords, '60s riffs, garage noises counterbalanced by clean, trembling, stamping electronic beats, this time willingly veered towards an old-fashioned danceability. Retro-dance seems to be the new direction. Attributable partly to Thomas Troelsen's contribution to production and songwriting (his "range" spans from Junior Senior to Aqua!).

The structural and harmonic essentiality is outlined by a raw sound as in "Lust Lust Lust", not vainly polished as in "Pretty in Black". The immediate and light melodies, somewhat cheeky, vaguely melancholic, of precarious, sickly sweetness, are overlapped with the livid force and intensity of whistles, reverberations, saturated distortions, sometimes confined, often piercing. The hermeticism of the verses can be equally violent occasionally.

The inspiration is dark, with a vintage breath.

Themes: suicides to postpone, rapes to curse, sadism, broken hearts, dazzling summer loves, or those buried under the moonlight, the indiscriminate use of lipstick.

Two songs in the batch stand out. "Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)": raw in its lyrics, whirling and overwhelming in its simple harmony. An amiable yet disturbing chant given the tragic and ever-current theme. Violence against women is always execrable.

"Suicide" is wonderful, beautiful. A strong and round disco beat, noise melodic chorus-fugue (with a little something of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" redone by Boys Town Gang and transfigured), Sharin's sexy, teasing vocals, still muddled and illogical: "Little girl running/…/ Your boyfriend is bad/ And your mother is a whore/…/ Run, run away baby/ Have fun in this fucked up world/…/ Lick your lips and damn the suicide".

Very beautiful too are "Break up Girls", which starts with the instrumental and violent clangor of Sonic Youth to decant in the usual successful catchy contrast, and finally, "I Buried You Today", an indolent ballad laden with the moods of Blue Velvet and/or Twin Peaks: mournful, grim, ethereal, and expansive. "Oh, I buried you today/…/ I know a heart is hard to please"-

The rest is not unpleasant, in fact, it immediately catches on, but in the long run, it turns out a bit, not too much, cloying. It is pop, indie, but pop. Not a masterpiece, certainly, but a very pleasant work, with some truly, truly happy bursts of creativity. The Raveonettes thus fulfill their task: to decline the verb of the Jesus And Mary Chain.