Track Listing

1. Fire With Fire
2. Standing in the Way of Control
3. Jealous Girls
4. Coal to Diamonds
5. Eyes Open
6. Yr Mangled Heart
7. Listen Up!
8. Holy Water
9. Keeping You Alive
10. Dark Lines
11. Listen Up! [2007 Version][*]
12. Standing in the Way of Control [Soulwax Nite Version][*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1005 in Music
• Released on: 2007-06-11
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
It's flatly unfair that the Gossip aren't a massive success, a rocknroll giant slayer, especially as they unleash another 10-song, 30-minute zinger like Standing in the Way of Control. Singer Beth Ditto's boundless, whether shouting out the title song's chorus or feather-dusting the lyric on Meg White-sounding album closer, "Dark Lines." The band rocks with an unerring simplicity, a leanness that writhes. The big-beat, hop-along (and sing-along) "Listen Up," is the centerpiece here, a stripped focus on the Gossip's core conviction, that rhythm can rock like little else. The tune has Ditto holding court over a bluntly simple one-two beat, cautioning a crowd that by rights ought to be tenfold larger: "now gather round/now listen up," warning them that "some people talk way too much." As Ditto stuns, drummer Hannah Blilie's beat pounds, and Brace Paine's guitar lays down a simple law. Ignorance of that law is no excuse. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

A Funky Rocky Pleasure
I've wanted this since seeing their barnstorming rendition of "Standing in the Way of Control" (SITWOC) on the tele from Glastonbury 2007 and while the album didn't quite get to that level (how could it) it was a joy to listen to.

They've a clean raw sound (not over produced) I really liked. The bass line is dominant through the record and often gives it a funky, pop and fun undertone that makes it a bit different. Drums and guitar give the song some rock oomph and, while voice quality is not always important for me (i.e. The Smiths and The Wedding Present), what a voice Beth Ditto has to give the songs an extra slice of quality and big dollop of passion.

If you mix up a fair bit of The White Stripes and their overall sound production, the funkiness of The Scissor Sisters, a dash of Electric Six and Aretha Franklin in a tetchy mood you could well end up with something like this record. (That's meant to be a good thing.)

SITWOC is the stand out track on the record and most of the songs are in this funky rock style and you hear elements of this key song in a few of the others but you'll get that with any band. "Eyes Open" heads over to glam rock territory. "Coal to Diamonds" and "Dark Lines" are the slow, even more minimalist, songs of which the former I liked least but even that's grown on me a lot.

The bonus remixed tracks of "Listen Up" and SITWOC are good fun with the former being a more soulful disco rendition and the later heading towards high energy disco but really I'd have prefer live versions of the songs. Recordings from Glastonbury would have been heaven and definitely stopped me umming and ahhing about 4 or 5 stars.