The Delphines

The ’80s are back! Or so say trend-watchers, as they have every other year since the actual decade. And while some Reagan-era style has resurfaced in the form of acts ranging from new-wave fetishists Causey Way to pop-metal revivalist Andrew W.K., one artifact has been steadfastly avoided: that slippery, Binaca-breath 1983 production. Cosmic Speed, the sophomore album by Go-Go’s guitarist Kathy Valentine and non-Go-Go singer and bassist Dominique Davalos, is a little disorienting at first to anyone who never expected that ’80s sheen to come full circle. But if thirteen tracks worth of neon-bright harmonies, vocals that sometimes wade into pools of echo and synth-compacted guitars sounds like the last thing you need, take a closer listen.

Cosmic Speed‘s skin is slick, but the guts are rough and raw. Unlike the hook-happy Go-Go’s, the Delphines are aligned with the hard-driving tough-girl grit of the Shangri-Las/Runaways/Donnas axis of evil. There’s a heavy blues undercurrent to just about everything on the album, from the first track, “Car Boy ” — a hot-rod rave-up with the seductively impassive refrain make-out, spin-out, wreck — to the closing “Pissin’ in the Wind.” The title track simmers even with a synthy bass line that sounds as if it’s been filtered through a vocoder, and an Ike Turner cover is done as straight R&B, complete with Hammond organ. The Delphines don’t seem to give a damn what decade it is — they’re just doing what comes naturally, and that’s a rare thing in any decade.