CHICKS ON SPEED 99 CENTS ALBUM EMI RELEASE: OCTOBER 8, 2003 REVIEW: OCTOBER 23, 2003

Take some everyday problems, three half-crazy chix and some traditional electroclash. Put it in a mixer - blend well - and you have Chicks on Speed. Add some fashion-design, writing and art to that, and you’ll get a vision of the three multi-tasking chix behind the music - Kiki Moorse, Melissa Longan and Alex Murray-Leslie.
Their third album since the flying start in 1997, "99 Cents", has been dedicated to the hard facts of shopping. The half-monotonous, mostly talking or half-screaming vocals, together with a well built-up electro-background, guides the listener through advertising, sell-outs and the misery of abundance. I do not know if it is all about self-recognition, but my favourite track is definitely ” Fashion Rules!”. It’s just brilliant, both when it comes to lyrics and music.
As a way to reinforce the female touch even more, COS has invited the female musicians Tina Weymouth (Tom Tom Club and Talking Heads), Peaches, Nicola (Adult) and Miss Kittin to contribute to the album. It is a nice choice of musicians who blends perfectly well with the COS-theme. And for those of you who get as speeded as I do from listening to COS, I have something nice to tell: The chix are already working on a new album, estimated to be released in early 2004.
It may not be a dancefloor killer, but I definitely think that the album is a must-have in every alternative collector’s CD-shelf. It adds so much more than just happy, catchy music: perspective to every urban, hard-working woman’s life and it brings a smile every now and then, a smile caused by reality and the fact that someone’s actually making music out of such dead-serious things as sell-outs and consolation-shopping.

KARIN MARTINSSON