This is why we love rock ‘n’ roll. BANGS are one of the new generation of young bands that are just as informed musically by Aerosmith as they are Minor Threat. BANGS’s songs are short, fast and catchy. They have punk rock attention spans and rock ‘n’ roll hearts. Even guitar solos. The songs are performed with all the energy of a great live show. Sarah and Maggie’s voices never lose their urgency even in their most sing-along moments.
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Boy, was I wrong.

The opening title track and first single is a fitting introduction to Madonna’s “new” sound: its off-kilter pulses and vocoder-sung refrain announce Madonna as a woman who, at 42, isn’t ready to stop dancing. It’s groovier than anything she’s done since Bedtime Stories and is as suitable a raison d’etre as any for the singer. The change in sound from the Orbit-helmed Ray of Light is immediate. Ray of Light was English techno: all clean synthetics (even the guitars were emasculated, clean and crisp) and easy, constant drum patterns (the bass drum on the downbeat, high-hat on the upbeat). Madonna’s lyrical themes even reflected the album’s English-ness being slightly gothic, heavily sappy (dealing obviously with Madonna’s new child) and all too safe. (more…)