Death From Above 1979 - You're A Woman, I'm A Machine

  by Mark Rowland

published: 16 / 3 / 2005

---

Review

Although Canada unleashed Bryan Adams, Celine Dion and Avril Lavigne on the world, it is actually capable of producing some fantastic music. Take Death from Above 1979 for example. A two piece bass and drums (and sometimes synth) combo, they rock; pure and simple. Like Whirlwind Heat and Lightning Bolt, the bass takes the role of the guitar on ‘You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine’, giving them a meaty sound and lending the riffs a slight jazzy fluidity. Unlike those bands, however, Death from Above utilise a more traditional song structure, making them more accessible. The result is something like Queens of the Stone-age doing post-punk/ new wave songs, especially on opener ‘Turn it Out’, which could easily fit in on the Queen’s previous album ‘Songs for the Deaf’. There are elements of the stuff the Faint did on ‘Danse Macabre’ as well – an underlying disco beat to songs like ‘Romantic Rights’ and ‘Black History Month’ and a similar grimy synth sound in places – but it is used in a much more exciting way. When listening to most of the songs on ‘You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine’, you don’t know whether to dance or just rock out. One thing is clear: it isn’t a subtle album. There aren’t any slow quiet tracks here, just great riffs and hooks. Even when you think it’s starting to sound a bit like a stripped down version of the new American new wave, it hits you with something fantastic.‘Little Girl’, for example, comes in like a distorted disco track, then hits you in the middle of the song with a great descending bass-line. Drummer Sebastian Grainger’s vocals occupy the same middle ground as Death from Above’s music, switching between a funky disco punk yelp and a Nick Oliveri style screech. He certainly is capable of some great vocal hooks, however, there are plenty of hummable choruses on ‘You’re a Woman…’ Death from Above also supply six bonus tracks along with the album, including two extra studio tracks (‘Better off Dead’ and ‘You’re Lovely’), remixes of album tracks ‘Blood on our Hands’, ‘Romantic Rights’ and ‘Little Girl’ and one live track, ‘Do it 93!’. These are pretty good, but the remixes don’t have any of the raw power the studio tracks have. The live track does give you a good idea of what the band would be like live, however: very loud and very rockin’. This is a great modern rock ‘n’ roll album.

Track Listing:-

1 Turn It Out
2 Romantic Rights
3 Going Steady
4 Go Home, Get Down
5 Blood On Our Hands
6 Black History Month
7 Little Girl
8 Cold War
9 You're A Woman, I'm A Machine
10 Pull Out
11 Sexy Results