It is a bonus if a band looks as good as they sound. One can safely assume then, that if a band has good looks and great hooks, they will use both to their advantage in packaging their wares. Unfortunately, Chains of Love’s debut full-length misses the mark, even though the band has all the right tools. On stage, the Chains are seductive and exciting. It would take a more than stoic personality to resist the energy from lead singer Nathalia Pizarro and her counterpart Rebecca Marie Law Gray. Pizarro’s powerful, smoky vocals draw you in and this, coupled with the abuse she delivers to her tambourine, would be enough to cast spells on the Pied Piper himself. Chains of Love perform songs that are upbeat, danceable and downright irresistible. If there is one truth about live shows, however, it is the constant reminder that a band rarely sounds as good on record as they do live. Nevertheless, often we approach the merch table in hopes that we can re-create the shared magical experience and duplicate it in our 2 cm ear buds. Like the album cover, which really tells us very little about the band and their sound, Strange Grey Days is a just a bit off target.

Strange Grey Days has the potential to be a fantastic tribute to Phil Spector-esque girl groups from the ’60s. The Chains are comparable to the sweet sounds of The Ronettes with an extra squeeze of garage-rock jangle, a combination has the ability to strike a heartbeat in the undead. Instead, though, what transpires on the record is an assault on the mid-range frequency of the ears driven by a sound that is stubbornly hindered by its own limitations and DIY mantra. Chains of Love throw down a moreish, lively affair worthy of a sing-a-long or two, but the problem lies in their desire to create a distorted lo-fi ethic, hiding the clarity of the lyrics from any normal functioning pair of ears and making them very difficult to discern. This makes the endeavour of singing the tunes in the shower a little more awkward than it already is, though the urge to do so is very healthy.

While the album is a tad difficult to swallow as a whole, make no mistake that in small doses, Strange Grey Days is addictive. The tracks weave in and out of traditional ’60s girl group elements built on catchy jingles and contagious bass lines. Eight of the nine songs on the album follow a fun, upbeat vibe with great melodies to complement the classic Motown rhythms or retro organs. The title track is quite a departure however, a morose gloomy track that moves away from the lively mood, replicating instead the tone of the weather in the Chains’ home town of Vancouver. Glockenspiels meander their way with a melancholy feel while the textured, harmonious noise pop runs alongside a rather lethargic vocal offering. ‘Strange Grey Days’ is a welcome break from the mid-range onslaught of the previous 23 minutes, and undoubtedly a great track, but it makes for a misleading album title and cover given the spirit of the rest of the songs.

Garage rock is predicated on the idea that you can substitute raw talent for (or supplement it with) raw energy. The members of Chains of Love are certainly super talented, yet their potential is hidden behind overused reverb and underused quality recording equipment. Strange Grey Days sounds like an alarm clock radio and while that aesthetic works perfectly for drone-pop savants like Dirty Beaches, Chains of Love would be better served with a cleaner, crisper approach that highlights their musical talents, as opposed to burying them amidst a gargle of lo-fi noise.