Before Jack White cast her as muse/foil in the Nashville-based bluesy rock band The Dead Weather, Alison Mosshart had already established herself as the blustery lead singer known as “VV” in the London-based bluesy rock band The Kills. Onstage, Mosshart’s got a kind of smoldering charisma that few other performers can touch — snapping from stare-down cool to hair-whipping unhinged in the crash of a guitar chord. “Satellite,” The Kills’ first single from their latest,
Blood Pressures, is the sort of noirish, drifting tune that gets by as much on attitude and texture as anything. And while neither of Mosshart’s projects do much to exceed what bluesy rock bands like Boss Hog accomplished over a decade ago, one could certainly do worse than to get swept up into their cocky, brooding atmospheres.
— Steve Haruch