Album Review

Juliette & The Licks – Four on the Floor

• 12th Jun 2007

So only a matter of months after the release of this somewhat disappointing second album, apparently there must be legions of fans who not only want the album but now want a DVD with it so they can watch Miss Lewis and her licks getting up to all their rock star frivolities. Plus, of course, they can milk even more out of the fact that Dave Grohl played drums on it!

‘Your Speaking My Language’ was a pretty good debut and silenced a lot of “oh god, not another actress turned singer” critics. It showed that it was no publicity stunt or career reinvention plan, just that the Natural Born Killers star was a fabulous front woman and enjoyed nothing more than a good ol rock out.

The problem with ‘Four on the Floor’ is that it just doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Even the presence of the omnipotent rock deity that is the angry Grohl doesn’t seem to help it, if anything it hindered it, songs feel like rushed ‘first thing that pops into your head so it’s ready for Dave’ efforts that just don’t quite cut the mustard. There are a few stand out moments, ‘Sticky Honey’ with it’s borrowed from The Hives riff, ‘Hot Kiss’ with its radio friendly chorus hook. But for the most part, it’s just self-indulgent, clichéd, run of the mill rock and roll that sounds pretty out of date and finds you re-asking the question, would they really be half as big if they didn’t have a movie star for a front woman?

So then we come to the DVD. Various bits and pieces here, starting with a making of mini documentary. Part one of such is all about the drum recording and therefore all about Dave Grohl, footage of him laying down tracks in his own phenomenal way, coupled with all the members of the band telling us how much they think he’s great (almost sickeningly) and you see just how much the album was made to revolve around him. Next is Juliette talking about her inspirations behind her writing of ‘Four on the Floor’ and the overall recording process, with various snippets of footage from the sessions.

Other parts of the DVD are dedicated to tour diary like home made vids from tour bus antics, seeing the world, holiday snaps and playing at the Foo Fighters headlined Hyde Park festival. The whole thing is rounded off by a collection of music videos. All in all, not a bad little extra but not something I can imagine you wanting to watch more than once.

If for some reason you already have the album on it’s own, why you want to spend your hard earned cash on this is difficult to understand to say the least. If you haven’t, and really must force yourself, then this edition yields a bit more for your currency. But when all said and done, you’d be much better off if you just go out and get The Noisettes album instead!