Salt

A power pop rock trio which has adopted Chicago as home base, The Locals favor anthemic melodies in driving atmospheres taken up sharply by the powerfully voiced Yvonne Doll, who's something of a cross of Martha Bates, Debbie Harry, and Christina Amphlett. Without doubt the core of the combo, she nonetheless tends a trifle too much to mainstream affectations and compositions kinda in the old MTV New Wave fashion, a jumpier Motels without the unique melodic bent Davis imbued that ensemble with.

Vijay Tellis-Nayal, a session guy, tosses in some much needed atmospherics and moogy mainlines via keyboards and should be inducted into the band. In fact, I'm not so sure Ms. Doll—who, by the way, is a necromancer as well (yikes!)—shouldn't have a permanent backing band of larger size, one that knocks the groove to the floor and throttles it mercilessly, because she's a force to be reckoned with and too easily overpowers the more mundane 3, 4, and 5 person configurations, as here.

Track List:

Edited by: David N. Pyles
(dnpyles@acousticmusic.com)