EP Review: Marion Raven — Heads Will Roll

Not as awful as the buzz might have you believe, Heads Will Roll, the EP by Norwegian pop vocalist-turned rocker grrl Marion Raven offers slightly above-average rock. The playing is tight and focused, if offering nothing in the way of innovation. The vocals are a strong point; harmonies are tight and reasonably inventive for the genre. The opening track, “Spit You Out,” has a chunka-chunka guitar figure that keeps things moving; the pick-sliding-on-strings effect hearkens Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick (though the playing is, again, nowhere near as inventive).

There’s an inescapable emphasis on cock-tease subject matter, made clear by titles like “All I Wanna Do is You” and “Good 4 Sex” (Didn’t the Prince-ism of numbers-4-words wear itself out around, um, 1995?) The only misstep is the acoustic track that wraps up the disc, “Let Me Introduce Myself.” Something of a little sister to Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know,” the song is chock full of embarrassing clichés of interest to few over fifteen.

Also not as titillating as you might’ve heard, the video clip for the title track (included on the disc in Quicktime format) adds little to Raven’s legacy. She’s a pretty face with — it must be said — a nice body, and her female costars are pleasant enough to view. Inside a sheet metal cube, the gals writhe and touch each other ever-so-delicately while Ms. Raven stares into the camera and sings her song. Gentleman callers peer through slots at the crypto-sapphic goings-on. The clip would make appropriate between-movie filler on Cinemax late-night.