Pánico continue their second life of sorts in 2010 with Kick, as the Chilean group keeps up its crisp, ghost-of-new-wave-inspired way around rock. If anything, they sound a little more settled into things than they were already on Subliminal Kill, with the opening "Illumination" starting out as a quirky enough little groove but concluding like an anthem thanks to a great guitar solo matched with a sighing vocal. The combination of breezy delivery and just-aggro-enough arrangements helps define the rest of the album, with the chug of songs like "Bright Lights" being a perfect representative. "Algodon" could almost be a
Jesus and Mary Chain song if
the Reids sang in Spanish with a slightly cleaner tone -- except for the giddy midsong break in English, which somehow makes it all even better. Meantime, a song like "Reverberation Mambo" plays around with their background -- or at least expectations thereof -- while at the same time rocking out just as much as anything else on the album. One suspects they wouldn't have it any other way -- especially when "Guadalupe" has lead singer Eddie Pistolas talking about the titular character giving him "the jangle fever" over a big-as-hell drum groove with keyboard noise that sounds like the ultimate Frug from 1966 and 2001 at once. The only surprise is that
Mark E. Smith doesn't show up as a guest as a result. ~ Ned Raggett