Icey Electro With An Extra Proportion Of Sex Appeal
Soho Dolls certainly know how to grab your attention with tunes about strippers, playground antics, and strangely enough Prince Harry, however once the provocative overtones wear off and you're bored of hearing about seduction and sauciness, will Soho Dolls last the duration? It's alright giving your music a teasing glamrock edge, but when it's this obvious and in your face, the fun of imagining the dirty side to the tunes has disappeared as you know damn well what was in these wicked madams' imagination.
'Prince Harry' is a twinkling dance tune with buzzing beats sharing the band's love of the young royal, it's another daring subject, although more likely to cause shock outside the UK where respect for our royal family is still intact. After a lesson on the monarchy, Soho Dolls will soon offer you a trip to the 'Pleasures of Soho' in a sparkling tune spritzed with a light offering of titilation.
'My Vampire' is a dark and eerie highlight with whispers of sultry lines like, "He wants to crash my castle gates" over a bruising bass, this gets the beats into your blood like no other with its subtle and sly melody. 'I'm Not Cool' stands out as a slinky and sassy tune with bluesy brass riffs and smooth vocals.
There are plenty of notable, but fairly generic numbers like the thundering, 'Right And Right Again', most of these, especially the acerbic, 'Trash The Rental' and 'Weekender' are painfully close to the vibe that The Sounds have been producing for years with icey echoes of the eighties. Elsewhere, closer, '1724' has the same lucid aural glow as Ladytron's creations; that's not to say that it's not good, just you have to forget that it's a rather regurgitated sound, so providing you're not expecting groundbreaking, there's a lot to like about 'Ribbed Music For The Numb Generation', once you look beyond the scummy faux glam titles and lurid talk.