KAVIAR SPECIAL - ALBUM REVIEW

Kaviar Special - Kaviar Special (Howlin' Banana Records/Azbin Records) 
Kaviar Special - Kaviar Special

When you start your album off with a three minute melodic garage punk song called 'Dating A Slut' you're kinda setting your stall out nice and early. French quatre-piece Kaviar Special do just that on their debut LP and we're off on a thirteen track thrill ride through the back streets of Renne in a knackered Citroen 2CV with tinted windows. 'Dead' is dripping in Velvet Underground and Stooges influences (no bad thing) and 'Summer' is an upbeat romp with a drunken guitar solo and vocals sung from the next room. The too-cool-to-care attitude of 'Bored To Death' perfectly matches the sleazy organs and low slung guitar riffs. Meanwhile, on 'Mr Pickle', there is definite sense that these guys have listened to the Doors and Jefferson Airplane as well as a healthy diet of garage punk to come up with their expansive take on a traditionally one dimensional genre of music. Having said that, the surf punk romp of 'Shirley' is about as basic as it gets and it's still a whole lot of fun. Essentially, this is music for men in leather to nod their heads to in a cloud of smoke while the girls move their knees in time with the music.  

Without further ado, on to 'Paradise' which starts out like an early Long Blondes track before turning in to a long lost Strokes b-side that people would get very excited about. 'Ptit Cul' (literally 'L'il Ass') is an instrumental piece of fun that Dick Dale's snot-nosed nephew might have written whilst 'Poison Cake' is reminiscent of Les Anges having a go at the theme tune for a new Dr Who film set in the wild wild west. The buzzsaw guitars of 'Sabadidon' soon give way to a volley of distortion and yobbish shouting that is hard to ignore, let alone resist. The first tempo change of the album comes on '#1' which is the song that you need to make your move during because this album finishes in two tracks time and then that girl will be gone again...until next Saturday night. Those last two tracks are 'Please Don't Come In', the one where the band end up in the crowd sweating in the eyeballs of the punters, and 'Untitled Relationship', the one they play at the end of the night while the beautifully cool people at the back of the room hook up to go home to make beautiful babies. Kaviar Special make a racket, that's for sure, but the racket they make is full of lust, testosterone and sex-appeal.


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