When I think of Norway, my first thought doesn’t usually turn to all-female garage rock bands. That is until I recently saw the Cocktail Slippers perform at South By Southwest. Now the Oslo band is back with their second album for Steve Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool Records.
Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre is really a fun listen. The band comes equipped with a street tough attitude reminiscent of the Shangri-Las, and a handful of catchy songs. The fact that the best of the songs were not written by the band is no knock on them. After all, it’s hard to compete with great songwriters like Greenwich and Barry who wrote “Don’t Ever Leave Me,” Raleigh and Barkan who wrote the Lesley Gore classic “She’s A Fool,” which the Cocktail Slippers cover beautifully here, or Van Zandt himself, who wrote the powerful title track. But there’s not a bad song here, and the band’s pounding “You Do Run” stands out.
The album was produced by Van Zandt and former Plasmatic and disciple of soul Jean Beauvoir. They’ve done a great job of putting a modern spin on the classic girl-group aesthetic without sacrificing any of the joy to be found there.
In A Word: Torrid
