Soul Drift

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

According to vocalist Brody Dalle, Spinnerette was formed by accident after the birth of her daughter in 2006. She started demoing with Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age, Eleven) mostly writing tracks on bass, wurlitzer and then guitar, exploring a musically different direction to her previous band, The Distillers. Spinnerette is essentially Brody Dalle’s band with a revolving door of musicians and she has complete creative control, which was vital to her after some bad experiences with major labels. Despite the album tracks being quite upbeat & ‘dancey’, they deal with some heavy & dark subject matters lyrically. The record is said to be inspired by motherhood & also the death of Brody’s father.

If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that I have already discussed ‘Ghetto Love’ & ‘Distorting A Code’, & my opinions still stand on the two tracks. I think ‘Ghetto Love’ is a great track to kick off & set the tone for the record – it is the definition of a rock album you can dance to! Fast-paced ‘All Babes Are Wolves’ follows in a similar vein; another catchy sing-a-long track.

Other stand-out tracks for me on the album are ‘Baptized By Fire’, ‘Driving Song’ & ‘Geeking’. ‘Baptized By Fire’, the first single to be released, is probably the most radio-friendly & I have been singing the chorus over & over for the last few days – I absolutely adore it! However, ‘Driving Song’ has to take the top spot for me personally; it is an incredibly powerful & emotional song. I first heard it when Brody sang it at the Natasha Shneider Benefit Concert and it literally gave me chills. The way she sings ‘& I tried so hard to stay’ is so heartbreaking, it gets me every time. ‘Geeking’ is another notable track with some sad lyrics (‘going nowhere, nowhere fast’) that I like it a lot.

The other tracks on the album are not bad. ‘A Spectral Suspension’ is a thumping track with an interesting & sometimes chaotic sound. The gothy/dreamy ‘Distorting A Code’ has grown on me (although I think it could have done without the track being played backwards towards the end), as has the sleazy & dirty ‘Sex Bomb’, which similarly took a while.

Unfortunately after ‘Driving Song’, I always seem to lose interest & ‘Rebellious Palpitations’, ‘The Walking Dead’ & ‘Impaler’ seem to mesh into one. Perhaps I need to give these tracks enough time to grow on me too. They are by no means terrible, they just don’t seem to have the stand-out power than a lot of the other tracks possess. The album does draw to a satisfactory end though, with the long & stoner rock sounding ‘A Prescription For Mankind’.

Overall, the punk attitude is still there, as well as a lot of punky ‘woah-o’s’, ‘ooo’s’ & ‘hey’s’ but the music & vocals are a lot more mature. Brody Dalle sounds fantastic on the album & this new direction really suits her. There are a wide range of elements that you can hear on the record. The hints of Queen of the Stone Age is heard throughout, particularly in the slower & moody ‘Cupid’. I realise it must be annoying to be constantly compared to your husband’s band, but he & Alain Johannes must have had at least some influence! There are also traces of goth, grunge, dance & electro throughout the album, which give it variety. I personally think Spinnerette is maybe two or three tracks too long, but other than that, it works really well & I will definitely be purchasing it on June 15!

You can stream the entire album right now on their MySpace page & you can also download ‘Rebellious Palpitations’ for free at RCRDLBL.

Official Site | MySpace