The Ettes: Do You Want Power

The album could have been better with a few less songs and little more dirt

By Chad Radford Thursday September 24, 2009 03:17 PM EDT

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The Ettes have never been a particularly dangerous band, but the group's image and ability to fashion simple, catchy garage pop anthems - albeit suburban in their tidiness, have maintained a strong allure. It's the tidiness part that keeps them from rocking out on record as much as they do on-stage, and with Do You Want Power that sense of über refinement overpowers their raucous personality. &-;Red in Tooth and Claw" and &-;I Can't Be True" rumble with a commanding presence, they are good, if not great songs, but primitive art demands a primitive palette, and the record's sound is just too pedestrian for it's own good.-

It's a dubious battle to attack Reigning Sound frontman Greg Cartwright who produced Do You Want Power. Affixing his name to the record implies that it's going to come across with at least some of the full-body of a Reigning Sound album, or at least some of the records that he has produced. But the knob job these songs receive packs absolutely no punch at all which, in his defense, isn't entirely Greg's fault. The songwriting in some of the album's latter numbers, such as &-;Love Lies Bleeding" and &-;Modern Game" just isn't strong enough to stand on its own. By the time &-;While Your Girl's Away" comes around the whole thing degrades into wistful and girly dorm room reflections.-

Do You Want Power is a bland album, but with a few less songs and little more dirt, it could have been a good one. (Take Root)-

2 out of 5 star-

The Ettes play the Drunken Unicorn with Juliette Lewis. $15 (adv). $17 (door). 8 p.m. ''Thurs., Sept. 24. See the Drunken Unicorn transform into a little slice of L.A. pomp and scenery when the obnoxious actress-turned rocker brings her garage poseur dog and pony show through town.-
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