Wake Up the Sleepers

Kill Hannah’s sixth studio album Wake Up the Sleepers sounds like a band confident, curious and adventurous in the flowering of their own sound. “Radio” opens with wall-to-wall synthesizers that glow and pulse like ‘80s neon over a darkened dance beat and singer Mat Devine’s androgynous voice cooing with all the passion of a New-Romantic hero on the British hit parade. Even if it sounds like he’s serenading cocaine, “Snowblinded” plays with the innocence of a song on a John Hughes film that Molly Ringwald would dance to. More Placebo than Pumpkins, “New York City Speed” is a dance-floor “Born to Be Wild” for the Hot Topic generation, with guitars that snarl and snort under glassy keyboards and heart attack beats. “Living In Misery” changes gears with chiming acoustic guitars, synths that recall early ‘90s Cure, and a melodic guitar lead to which you could sing the Church’s “Under The Milky Way.”