aaamusic | On 23, Apr 2012

There are two big problems with Into The Night, the new EP from The Raveonettes. Firstly, the songwriting is simplistic and unmemorable, consisting mainly of dull pop harmonies and melodies that we’ve all heard before. Secondly, all four songs are then realised with exactly the same increasingly tiresome sound – they all feature a fuzzy combination of warm synths; soft, whispering female vocals; prominent drum beats; and repetitive electric guitar. The result is listenable to start off with, but becomes increasingly bland and irritating as it continues.
The opening title track ‘Into The Night’ is an eighties sounding power pop ballad, a description which may give an impression of the song as more interesting than it actually is. I can imagine it playing over the closing titles of some annoying indie-spirited romance movie – Like Crazy perhaps. It’s a bit mawkish and musically nothing to write home about – the whispering vocals, warm synths and familiar pop harmonies that will feature throughout the EP are all evident here. Nethertheless, it’s still the catchiest song on the EP, and is just about pleasant enough.
‘Night Comes Out Revised’ starts out ok; it is less sentimental and uses the fuzzy combination of synths and soft vocals to better effect in combination with a slightly psychedelic sounding riff. Sadly, this isn’t developed and the chorus returns to standard, unmemorable pop music harmonies. ‘Too Close To Heartbreak’ is very dull – the same familiar harmonies, and exactly the same instrumental sound as the previous two tracks. Finally, ‘Bad Ghosts’ is more of the same, if slightly more lively and repetitive. The phrase ‘You’ve got bad ghosts’ is repeated over and over again in the lyrics, fitting very aptly the insipid mundaity of the music.
I definitely couldn’t stand a full album of songs as samey as this. The band needs to spend a lot more time coming up with different sounds, chord sequences, riffs and melodies, and not just keep relying on the same bland formula over and over again, as sadly they have done here.

★★★★★

Rupert Uzzell