The Raveonettes: Pretty In Black

(Herald rating: * *)

With great names like Sune Rose Wagner (vocals/guitar) and Sharin Foo (vocals/guitar) you expect the Raveonettes to be made of star quality.

They were, especially on their debut Chain Gang Of Love, an album recorded entirely in the key of B-flat major. On that debut the Raveonettes turned their love for cutesy girl-group songs and the old-fashioned rock'n'roll tunes of Buddy Holly into slabs of modern pop with doses of distortion.

On their latest album they admit to cleaning up their sound, but it comes across all twee. But one thing does remain on Pretty In Black - the romantic, sexy and scandalous songs such as Seductress of Bums, the spaghetti-western tinged Love In a Trashcan and Sleepwalking, which glides along merrily like a Malibu surfboard.

But what they all need is just a little bit of the Raveonettes of old to really set them off. After those three tracks, it isn't until Twilight - track nine and album highlight - that they get into cruise mode again, with the aid of some distortion and fuzz.

It's all very well cleaning up your music, but when most of it comes back as tame as this, it's a shame.

Label: Colombia