Las Kellies' 2016 album, Friends & Lovers, is their first without original member Betty holding down bass duties, which is kind of sad. Also a bummer is the fact that the record isn't as good as their last one, 2013's Total Exposure. The remaining Kellies, drummer Silvina Costa and guitarist Cecilia Kelly, decided to chuck out almost all the funk and dub influences that worked a charm for them in the past in favor of a stripped-down, straight-ahead garage punk attack. Only a few tracks have any of the loopy reverb-heavy dub ("Sundays") and rubbery beats ("Sugar Beat") that made Total Exposure such a delight. The rest of the album is lashed down with standard-issue distorted guitars, four-four drums, and vocals that follow the chord changes pretty closely. Some of them are peppy and beat-driven ("I'm on Fire"), a couple have a little bit of Delta 5 kick to them ("Celebrate Life"), and some get pretty distorted and almost cartoonishly grungy ("I Don't Care"), but too many of them kind of drag along sluggishly. Songs like "Make It Real" and "Love Me as I Do" have none of the joyous punch their best work has; they are kind of the opposite, dull and uninspired. The production doesn't help much, as Iván Diaz Mathé just seems to set the dials to get a clean, unadorned sound and then let the duo run through the songs. There isn't much thought given to arrangements, backing vocals, or dynamics, which is kind of shocking given how highly the last two records scored in that department. Music this simple and direct needs to be presented with imagination and energy; otherwise, it just sort of sits there lifelessly. Sadly, apart from the one or two tracks that retain some of the production values of Total Exposure, Friends & Lovers doesn't display much of either. It's not an unpleasant listen by any means, just not a very compelling one.
© Tim Sendra /TiVo