Screaming Females -Power Move (2009) [Don Giovanni] // Grade: A

Power Move isn’t taking music in any new direction but it is one of those rare albums whose love for Rock N Roll not only bleeds out of every song, but it reminds you of exactly why it is you love listening to music as much as you do.

Take a little of 70s Proto-Metal like say The Flower Travellin’ Band and mix it with Television and Sleater-Kinney and you get New Jersey’s Screaming Females. Guitarist/Singer Marissa Paternoster (much welcome) sloppiness and enthusiasm at guitar heroics not only drive the sound but drains every drop of tension from pairing ability against ambition. It’s rare for a band to be so simple and traditional yet completely effortlessly steer songs into some artsier corner that while unexpected is entirely organic. On their third full length, Power Move, Screaming Females take that next step and become such a band… the first since the White Stripes dropped De Stijl.

- My Pal the Crook