The Kicks w/The Black Cadillacs & Sequoyah: at 12th & Porter (Nashville, TN) Thu. November 1, 2012

The Kicks w/The Black Cadillacs & Sequoyah

Nashville Scene Critic's Pick …

Critics are often drawn to the kind of rock ’n’ roll formalism that The Kicks display so cunningly, but the Nashville quartet is really good at it — their mastery of the post-Beatles, quasi-power-pop vocabulary is amazing. On their new full-length, Tonight Changes Everything, they perform songs that a formalism-loving critic can admire, and it could be that normal listeners will appreciate them almost as much.Mitch Dane’s production comprises Queen-style mock-classical flourishes, melodies borrowed from half-forgotten ’70s pop singles, and moments when the instrumentation drops out and the drums make their statement. I hear echoes of The Move by way of Cheap Trick, riffs that reference everything from Mick Ronson to Alex Chilton’s “Bangkok,” and codas featuring chiming guitars. “Standing on Top of the World” may be Tonight’s finest track, but it’s all excellent — students, close your textbooks and listen.