While they dish up more sass than thrash,
the Eyeliners would bloody more than a few lips in any rock & roll rumble. They stick to basic punky rock & roll on their 1997 debut, Confidential, but they've got a few tricks in their bag beyond the usual three chords. The guitar has garage attitude, with plenty of tough flourishes, and the vocals range from pretty to snotty, with the kind of perfect harmonies that seem possible only from siblings, whose voices are cut from the same cloth. Frolicking basslines and fast and furious drums propel the album's best rockers, "Anywhere but Here" and "Won't Be Long," which tear along at full throttle, seemingly ready to run off the road at any moment. The Eyeliners approach the teenage landscape of ditching class, AWOL boyfriends, and social awkwardness with attitude, like a teenage girl's slumber party where the agenda is boys and gossip, fueled by plenty of cigarettes and brandy lifted from the liquor cabinet downstairs. In other words, this would be the perfect soundtrack for sneaking away from home late at night in a sleek car with the windows rolled down and the stereo blasting, and let's be honest -- teenagers aren't the only ones who might need an album like that. ~ Sarah Tomlinson