There are some bands that would become all the more popular if they'd simply change their zip code. Case in point is New York's The Little Killers. While I'm sure certain dirtier corners of the Big Apple must appreciate this garage rock sludge of a bar band (and I mean that in the positive!), it's a fact that Detroit would love them more.

Maybe the Little Killers have picked up on that mindset, because they hired trendy Detroit Producer (Ghetto Recorders), former Dirtbomb, and Jack White complainant Jim Diamond to produce them. And while that is usually all it takes to get popular in Detroit (right down to the Metro Times cover), it might take more than just Diamond at the controls to make this record entirely memorable.

The Little Killers rock. They roll. They even ampersand - if that's possible. They don't pose. And they have a lot of hair in their eyes. Yet, despite all of those necessary ingredients to making a good modern day rock record, they still don't have it. It's not the fact that they're from New York or anything as silly as that. As a matter of fact, it might just be the production.

Look, I love Jim Diamond the Producer. I own a ton of the records he's produced (and some which he may have claimed to have produced), yet here, all of the songs seem to fall together. After listening to this album several times over the last month, this reviewer still has a hard time distinguishing between them.

Maybe it's because lead singer Andy Maltz's lyrics are buried too far down in the mix, when a voice like his should be celebrated. That voice is rock & FUCKING roll. The drums and bass, meanwhile, are filled with a sloppy, stub a cigarette out on your instrument intensity. But those potential aural perfections just don't click and crystallize as they should.

Each song is coated in such a layer of garage rock grease, grime, and beer sweat that the whole album becomes one long song. It's a good song, sure; but it's not doing much credit to a band that is probably fucking awesome live. A Real Good One is the sort of album that you buy after seeing the band play and are disappointed, because while the album has intensity, it just doesn't have that "shake your ass, drink five Rolling Rocks and make out with your shaggy-haired boyfriend in front of a bunch of embarrassed minors" aura.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, the Little Killers are good. They're probably even great. They just weren't showcased the right way this time. You don't coat diamonds in black paint, baby.

Reviewed by Megan Giddings