3 out of 5

Label: Un Je-Ne-Sais-Quoi

Produced by: Sex & Dollars

Launching from the speakers with Jet-like hooks, Hives-like edge, and Vines-like intensity, Sex & Dollars are not doing a wholly original rock-revival shtick, though perhaps owing to coming a few years late, they inject it with an extra iota of passion that’s backed up by playing chops and some fantastic production. The self-titled album is mostly comprised of tunes that riff on 70s glam / punk / rock riffage, but somewhere in the middle the group gives themselves the time to develop some tracks a bit beyond bluster, making for some really strong material that would’ve made for an even stronger album, if fleshed out to full-length. Not that the more generic stuff is without impact: that aforementioned passion surges through most tracks via kick-ass solos, or throat-rattling screams which push the material into hardcore punk vocal territory -maybe making S&D a tough sell to the crowd to which they were otherwise playing. The lyrics are also a bit confuzzled as well: if we’re taking the cover art and band name into account, some of the words do seem to be playing up a kind of tired, overtly straight-male sexual POV, but then there are some really odd turns of phrase at points that make that read puzzling. It’s hard to tell if that’s self-awareness that’s going over my head, though, or maybe a lack of focus, or maybe translation woes, since I’d guess this band is French first, English second.

Regardless, the songs dodge out of being cringe by including these interesting lyrical asides, and then the fact that they totally rock helps things along also. But it’s the tunes where they dip into some other waters – funk, Southern Rock, or indie rock – where the album really starts to land, and it’s too bad we couldn’t get more of such material, or seen / heard some followup releases which would iterate on the balance.

If you do find yourself replaying your Jet or Dirty Pretty Things or whatever albums, though, and kind of wishing there was a wider swath of better bands that’d come out of that time, S&D’s debut is definitely worth tracking down – they’re one of those acts that played the familiar, but made it sound vital and new.