Rock Bottom

The Kiss Offs feed from a wellspring of rebel insouciance and balls-out swagger that rock & roll seemed to have lost long ago; like the skin-tight leather pants which grace its cover, Rock Bottom promises sex, danger, and attitude to spare, and delivers in spades. For all of the ironic sneering implicit in titles like "The Freedom of Rock," there's an undeniably anthemic energy which courses through these songs like back-alley amphetamines -- the superb "Broken Fingers for Talented Singers," with its love-hate boy/girl vocals and hipper-than-thou irreverence, is a stalker's valentine to everyone from Springsteen to the Fall, while "We Can Work It" is not the Beatles song, but is quite possibly better. Rock & roll is dead -- long live rock & roll.