Spinnerette Causes Rock Critics To Go Back To The Stone Age

noah | June 15, 2009 6:00 am

This week, our look at the closing lines of the biggest new-music reviews takes a spin through reactions to Spinnerette, the self-titled full-length from Distillers frontwoman Brody Dalle’s latest project. Although you wouldn’t know that she actually had a music career before marrying Queens Of The Stone Age head dude Josh Homme if you only had the reviews after the jump to go by! • “Perhaps it’s because Dalle gets inspiration from other sources now: ‘Geeking,’ for instance, evolved from a lullaby she hummed to her daughter, and ‘Sex Bomb’ is a hilarious (think sirens, screams and comedy baritone interjections) ode to hubby Josh Homme. The fuzzed-up, slowed-down ‘A Prescription for Mankind’ seems to bear Homme’s imprint, but if he gave her a hand, an apparently exhausted Dalle still dominates the song. File Spinnerette alongside Pink and Joan Jett–and that’s a compliment.” [Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian] • “Brawny opener ‘Ghetto Love’ suggests the influence of husband Josh Homme, as does ‘Cupid,’ but it’s the frothier moments which stand out, in particular a swirling ‘Baptized by Fire’ and the twisted cheerleader chant ‘Sex Bomb.’ And though subtlety is in short supply, it seems churlish to complain about tunes this contagious.” [Hugh Montgomery, Observer] • “And as an exercise in exploring the themes of motherhood, bereavement, and dysfunctional love, Spinnerette also sounds like the album Courtney Love might have made had she not spent portions of the past decade blitzed to the back teeth. Which is a (very) good thing, by the way.” [Dan Silver, Q] • “Layering solid, catchy guitar hooks that sound like they’ve been borrowed from her husband, QOTSA’s Josh Homme, and mixing them with her signature growl, punk’s first and favorite pin-up has churned out an album that is admirably more focused and provocatively prevailing than her previous efforts.” [Teri Williams, Clash] • “I tried to find a review of this record that a) was from an American publication and b) wasn’t completely asinine about gender roles, but Google wasn’t popping for me this early in the morning. Here’s hoping that writers on this side of the pond are a little less lunkheaded about Brody Dalle’s marital status and ability to bear children, and a little more aware that a woman in rock can be influenced by people who aren’t her husband, when writing up this album!” [Maura Johnston, Idolator]