Booming success

The rhythmic chant is an ancient and potent musical element – one that erodes the barrier between audience and musician, forming a larger, unified whole. Starting from the earliest days when humans first started making music, this simple tool has come to be used in everything from religious ceremonies to sporting events – at any time when there is a diverse crowd in search of a common connection.

In Midnight Boom, The Kills have built almost an entire album around the power of the chant. The band’s members, Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince, claim they were inspired by “Pizza Pizza Daddy-O,” a 1967 documentary about the playground chants sung by children in a black ghetto of Los Angeles. The result is practically a study in the strengths and limitations of this aspect of music.

On the plus side, Midnight Boom is accessible and fun – indeed, the blues-rock duo has succeeded in casting off its cloak of “self-conscious cool” in favor of simply cool. While still plenty dark, sleazy and sexy, the adoption of (sometimes nonsensical) playground rhymes has made The Kills warmer and more likeable.

On the minus side, the embrace of such a repetitive technique leads to a feel of uniformity across the album. From track to track, the formula becomes clear: Here’s the drum machine, here’s Mosshart’s vocals and here’s the phrase that we’re going to hear several times over the course of the next couple of minutes.

But the chant nevertheless works its magic, and song after song from Midnight Boom hooks deeply into one’s brain, leading the listener to want not only to sing along, but to want to sing along even while the music’s off – whether that takes the form of “You are a fever / you are a fever / you ain’t born typical” from “U.R.A. Fever” or “I’m the only sour cherry on your fruit stand, right / Am I the only sour cherry on your fruit stand?” from “Sour Cherry.” The fact that its beats tempt one to clap and/or stomp along makes the album even more winning.

So, c’mon, chant along.