If there ever was a record made for dive-bar jukeboxes and strip clubs, Death by Sexy is it. The album, the second release of Eagles of Death Metal, is 37 tightly-packed minutes of racy, trashy fun — the musical equivalent of a pair of black fishnet stockings.
Although Death By Sexy includes several touches of bluegrass and goth, the primary influence on the band's sound is the late '70s/early '80s glam-rock genre of David Bowie, Queen and the New York Dolls. Eagles of Death Metal's glam-rock redux is completed with a gritty garage-band treatment complemented by a sleazy, swaggering sex vibe and singer Jesse Hughes’ Freddie Mercury-esque falsetto.
With all these converging elements, it's sometimes hard to take the band seriously, as it occasionally comes off more as parodies of its influences rather than legitimate rock-and-rollers. What saves Eagles of Death Metal from falling off the edge of kitsch — as fellow glitter-rock enthusiasts The Darkness tend to do — are the skillful guitar riffs and wildly energetic drum beats that evidence the band's complete credibility as musicians. The percussion is compliments of Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, who trades in his microphone for drumsticks when playing with Eagles of Death Metal.
Death By Sexy is kicked off with the raucous "I Want You So Hard (Boys Bad News)." In a style evocative of the Ramones, Eagles of Death Metal pack a whole lot of rock and roll into a song that's barely longer than two minutes. The track is a relentlessly manic good time and driven by Homme's persistent drumming, complimented by a screaming piano that gives the song a down-home, honky-tonk feel. This track, with its beckoning lyrics ("I want you so hard / I want you so good") and mad energy sum up the sexy-verging-on-seedy, slightly off-kilter and irony-laced rock and roll that Eagles of Death Metal are all about. This track is the band at its best. Oh, and that deep male voice in the chorus belongs to none other than Jack Black.
The dilemma with launching Death By Sexy with such a rip-roaringly excellent track is that everything that follows has a hard time comparing, although there are a few songs that rate almost as highly. "Solid Gold" is a stripped-down, funky little ass shaker that sounds like a sexed-up Buddy Holly tune, and "Cherry Cola" revels in the glory of its heavy, crunchy guitar riff that's paired with the so-bad-they're-good lyrics "I can be daddy be your rock and roller / you can be my sugar be my cherry cola." Both songs are self-consciously cheesy, and this is a large part of what makes then so damn enjoyable.
The only major problem with the album is the blatant similarity of several tracks. "I Like to Move in the Night," "Keep Your Head Up" and "Don't Speak (I Came to Make a Bang)" are essentially interchangeable. They're still libidinously enjoyable, but the redundancy is disappointing.
Fortunately, this repetition disappears near the end of the album, when the band strays into bluegrass country with "Chase the Devil," a twangy, haunted foot-stomper on which Hughes sounds like he's trying to channel Satan himself. The track is a spooky, spirited good time, and an unexpected and pleasing divergence from the rest of the album's hot-and-bothered rock.
Essentially, Death By Sexy is a homage to sex, drugs and rock and roll — though the band is mostly fixated on sex. And while the album is far from classic, there are moments of brilliance that would likely make Bowie proud. The band knows their music is campy, but they also know that, more importantly, it's going to get girls dancing at bars and cookouts. Judging from the album's tone, this is enough for Eagles of Death Metal.
Rating: 3 out of 5
