KISS THE CRYSTAL FLAKE
Album Review

MOTHER HIPS   Kiss the Crystal Flake

There’s a slashing immediacy to the Hips’ first release in six years, which everywhere reminds us to savor the moment, for we will not pass this way again. Songwriters Greg Loiacono and Tim Bluhm make this focal point both contemplative and oddly joyous. Their past country-rock flavor is gone, replaced by a very winning marriage of Clash snarl and Raspberries grandeur. The prevailing taste is wonderfully bittersweet, and there are few tighter, more ceaselessly inventive guitar-centric units than this one. The Hips take classic moves and revive them with switched-on modernity; their twin fascination with pure sonic tomfoolery and enduring song structure make them a worthy successor to Badfinger, Television and others who illuminated rock’s fundamental pleasures. Crystal Flake is beautifully intense pop of the highest order, and an early highlight of 2007. - Dennis Cook