The garage rock "revolution" never really delivered on a big scale save for the runaway success of scene darlings The White Stripes. The scene tended to stay staunchly regional or low-profile, with bands like the Dirtbombs and the Deadly Snakes refusing to let their raunch and grime become washed-away while major-label never-were's like the Mooney Suzuki and the Von Bondies allowed the suits to do what seemed best to prep them for the wipe-spread success that never came their way. Such spit-shine mingling was a bit of a pointless gesture in the first place, failing to realize that even the Stripes had a certain grit despite their move to a bigger label; if anything, the Stripes had a happy medium going that allowed their simplistic set-up to exude enough pop smarts to keep both sides of the coin happy.
The Gossip are another one of those bands that have enough of a rudimentary, minimal grit that shares equal billing with elements that could move even the most discerning of listeners. The trio's secret weapon lies in vocalist Beth Ditto, who possesses startlingly adept and soulful pipes that recalls the kind-of gritty and emotional vocalizing from the heyday of '60s pop and soul. It's rare to find a singer like her nowadays in general, but especially in the world of indie rock, where one's ability to "sing" has usually taken a back-seat to the songwriting and the execution. That the indie rock world has either ignored, or worse, written off The Gossip is disheartening in that Ditto's voice alone deserves as many accolades as it can get and easily pulls the Gossip's more derivative moments to an exalted status.
Standing In The Way Of Control doesn't differ too much from the Gossip's barebones aesthetic, but on album number three, the band has a newfound tightness and sense of, to use a terrible pun, "control." Much has been made about new drummer Hannah Billie (who has also played in Shoplifting and the Chromatics), and while she does reel in an admirable restraint to the proceedings, the entire trio deserves credit for the fully-fleshed body given to the songs. "Fire With Fire" and "Jealous Girls," for instance, thrust forth with a rough-bodied sound despite the minimal set-up, and both bring a certain sense of abrasive post-punk undercurrents to the standard garage band template. The most apt examples of this progression into genre-mingling lie in the superb first single "Standing In The Way Of Control" and "Listen Up ;" both songs possess a raw danceable quality that was perhaps last seen early on in the whole dance-punk phase when the Rapture could still rock a filthy groove like "Out Of The Races And Onto The Tracks" without all the polish that ended up plaguing the scene. If the Gossip deserve credit for any new ground broken, perhaps it's in bringing an extra bit of hip-swinging swagger into the manic world of garage rock.
With Standing In The Way Of Control, the Gossip, in a perfect world, should hopefully prove the naysaying directed their way is haphazard at best. On this record, the trio tinkers with an arguably simplistic formula, but has the ability to pull it out of the templated graveyard with liberal amounts of vigor and sass. Where many critics seem to steer wrong in their impression of the band is failing to notice that the Gossip's music is about execution, and not necessarily innovation; Ditto and company take indie-rock in a direction many of its fans are not used to, in that the focus is mostly about the human voice and the way the musicians compliment the singer's attack. While not a certified classic, it's the closest we're perhaps going to get for a by-gone era of rock n' roll when vocal prowess could mean as much as songwriting skill.
1. Fire With Fire
2. Standing In The Way Of Control
3. Jealous Girls
4. Coal To Diamonds
5. Eyes Open
6. Your Mangled Heart
7. Listen Up!
8. Holy Water
9. Keeping You Alive
10. Dark Lines
More about: The Gossip
