Turbula
Online since August 2002
Music

Twenty years too late

Reviewed November 2007

This Is Forever
This Is Forever
By She Wants Revenge

Geffen Records: 2007

To hear sound clips or learn more about this release, Turbula recommends viewing its Amazon.com entry.

A new wave throwback band that sounds like a cross between Depeche Mode and Joy Division, She Wants Revenge does for the '80s what Dave Edmunds did for the '50s in the '70s.

Heavy, thumping beats, an overload of synthesizers and vocals that have been run through a half-dozen or more effects boxes combine to create the kind of thick, overproduced sound that dominated the early years of MTV.

This isn't a tribute band, though – the 13 songs on its second CD are all originals, written by the band. Much as Edmunds could turn out a song such as "Worn out Suits, Brand New Pockets" in the mid-'70s that sounded like vintage 1950s rock 'n' roll, so the members of She Wants Revenge have written a whole passel of songs that are firmly, completely in and of the 1980s.

And they're good songs, too. Find a time machine, set it to 1984, and watch "Walking Away" and "True Romance" climb the charts.

Whether the world is ready for a band that doesn't realize the '80s are over, though – now that's a different question.

Review by Jim Trageser. Jim is a writer and editor living in Escondido, Calif., and was a contributor to the "Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD" (1993) and "The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Blues" (2005).



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