(4 out of 5 stars)

Norwegian Rockheroins


"We are the Japanese of the north", said singer Pelle Almqvist from Swedish band The Hives once about the ability of Scandinavian bands to bend well know popmusic styles to their own. The Norwegian girlrockgroup Cocktail Slippers can be added to that list. In 2007 they released their debut album, that got a little bit stuck in well-mend urge to imitate, but on Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre everything seems to fall in its place.

The Cocktail Slippers outshine in a form of style earlier used by Blondie, Joan Jett, The GoGos and The Bangles and which finds its roots in sixties girlie pop of the Shangri-Las, The Ronettes and the first all-girl group Goldie and the Gingerbreads. Tough girl with cotton-candy hairdo’s sung with exiting, heated voices about successes and failures in their lovelives, in big orchestrated songs which often came out of the hitfactory of New York’s Brill Building.

In the new-wave are the girl groups became more down to earth by adding electric guitars and singing organs. Cocktail Slippers start where Blondie’s Denis ended, with catchy harmony vocals and songs that tell in simple words (baby, baby) about the cruel truth of love.

Guitarist Little Steven from Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band saw the 5 girl play and immediately offered them a record deal, overpowered by their devotion to rock & roll and the self-assured voice of leadsinger Modesty Blaze. A cover version of Connie Francis’ 1964 hitsong Don’t Ever Leave Me shows flawless where these ladies get their inspiration from, not far from the place where Bruce Springsteen found his melodramatic rockfeel. Little Steven co-produced the album and wrote the title track St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, a beautiful song about a love that is put through the test in a hurricane. The melody is one you think that has always been there.

Strong songs like the heavy doowopping Love Me Back and the on Da Doo Ron Ron from The Crystals inspired You Do Run give new vitality to a timesless pop-perception, played and sung with a holy believe in own abilities.

Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre rages on for 37 irresistible minutes and has to be put on repeat straight after that, simply because the world lacks a modern-day girl group that gets close to staing in the shadows of these wonderful ‘old-fashioned’ Cocktail Slippers.