Living Things

Tempering their love for '70s pre-punk with oddly sweet pop chorus cascades and the occasional crunch of AC/DC-inspired riffery, Living Things' second proper major label release may be a grab at the hearts and minds of the mainstream, but at least their outspoken political bent hasn't been eroded by their growing status as hipster darlings. There are more songs about war, but also a few about cool-kid romance that reveal a band determined to avoid the pigeon-hole. Lead single "Let It Rain" represents the soft side, but it feels like "Dirty Bombs" is the one they have their heart in.

On Living Things' rock-solid 2005 debut, singer Lillian Berlin was Iggy Pop with a
subscription to The Nation, delivering bracing rockers about how much rigged elections
and the Iraq War sucked. Habeas Corpus, named after the legal right denied Gitmo
prisoners, has a load of anger and a marginally broader pallet, with more synths per inch.
Berlin warns that "the Constitution's goin' AWOL!" on the T. Rex-influenced "The... More >