The Wives: Ripped

CBGB Records

Something's awry. The songs are fine—in fact, America 's toughest chick band has a fistful of good ones. Both “Insight” and “Cut & Tear” show a songwriting savvy that's rare among hardcore bands, hopping from one musical idea to the next without losing focus on the task at hand: stocking the mosh pit. There are even glimpses of tenderness: “Strapped Down Tight” and “Ripped” don't so much brag of the rock and roll lifestyle as confess to it. Lines such as “I go out and drink alone/My bed is where my body lands” would be almost poignant if the music weren't mowing you down like a Mack truck.

The performances range from acceptable to spirited. Drummer Tracy's athletic hammering is as skilled as punk percussion gets, while the guitar and bass is precision-tight through blurry tempos and frequent structural gear-shifting. Singer-guitarist Zu wails like a snake-bitten harpy, castigating and emasculating her subjects for their cowardice, phoniness, and general stupidity.

But something ain't clicking here, and it's not apparent what that is until the final track, a live version of the band's jubilant theme song, “Wives.” It's simply a ferocious performance: raw energy, raw power, raw nerves. And that's exactly what the studio tracks lack, rawness. Overproduction kills punk rock dead—the Stooges knew it, Black Flag knew it, and post-Nevermind Kurt Cobain knew it. You'd think CBGB, of all labels, would know it too.

—John Pecorelli

Alternative Press magazine