garbage in, garbage out

Sexplosion! (Interscope)

My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult

By Kory Wilcoxson

Techno-pop is the no-man's-land of music, where faceless bands blend together like mirages and only creatively energetic voices emerge as refreshing oases. This is not one of those oases.

I could have tolerated this album if bad music alone was the only offense. But the Thrill Kill Cult couldn't be happy producing banal, monotonous dance music. They had to use a cheap gimmick to try and attract listeners.

They obviously subscribe to the theory that sex sells. Not only is it in the title of the album, but it is mentioned in the title of four songs, and a fifth mentions sin. The songs are hardly attractive and not the least bit titillating, musically or otherwise, and such blatant use of a cheap thrill to sell albums makes the group seem perverted and — even worse — desperate.

There's not a song on Sexplosion! worth a second listen, unless you are trying to exterminate rodents or create the soundtrack to a Nintendo game. Songs like "Leathersex" and "A Martini Built for Two" show not an iota of musical effort. This album should be locked away in a vault, and the writer sexecuted.