Rating: NNN
It’d be almost impossible for Run with the Kittens to funnel their spastic, epileptic live show into an album, but they pull it off a few times here. The unsettling mania of Ricky Martin Shake Your Boobies In My Face, the unfastened raw all-over-the-place feel of their nasty rap Let’s Make Love (with its brash hook, “Let’s make fuck!”), the honey-sweet creepiness of their title track and their out-loud-funny grunt-heavy medieval metal anthem Socar (The Fictional Barbarian) will bowl you over. But despite their strong songwriting ability, which gives their wild humour a backbone, the influence of Beck is a little too apparent and the overall tone inconsistent – it’s hard to notice their deadpan winks on some tracks when they’re spraying you in the face with seltzer on others.
The Kittens live la vida loca at the Rivoli Friday (October 14).
