The Kills - God Games

God Games is the sixth studio album by Anglo American rock duo The Kills, released in October 2023 via Domino.

The Kills are an English-American rock duo formed in 2001 by American singer Alison "VV" Mosshart and English guitarist Jamie "Hotel" Hince.

Across the 12 tracks of God Games, the duo of Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince plunge into new sonic territory with this hypnotic, propulsive album while maintaining the band’s signature, seductive bravado.

God Games centres the primal call-and-response between Mosshart’s full body vocal catharsis and Hince’s swaggering, guillotine-smooth guitar transmissions. Stretching the boundaries of the pair’s signature sound, they chose to write from new perspectives.

The results find the duo writing primarily on piano for the first time, incorporating innovative electronic and brass textures, crystal clear production and deeply human lyrics, as well as a collaboration with the Compton Kidz Club Choir on 'LA Hex' and 'My Girls My Girls'. Writing began in 2019, the duo decamping to an old church to record the album with Academy® and GRAMMY® Award-winning producer Paul Epworth (Adele, Paul McCartney), who was their very first sound-man in 2002.

God Games received a score of 82 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on 11 critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Hal Horowitz of American Songwriter wrote that the duo "prove that the time off hasn't dulled their artistic edge" and remarked that the absence of guitar work on some tracks "delineates how this disc has shifted away from the twosome's previous work", which "makes for an intense, generally unrelenting forty-minute project; one that pushes The Kills into fresh musical territory".

Mojo described the album as "sun-scorched Californian jams", while Uncut felt that "the set ranges ambitiously from hypnotic, twisted love songs such as '103' and the title track to the warped gospel undertones of 'My Girls My Girls' and 'LA Hex', courtesy of the Compton Kidz Club Choir".

This album is a limited edition on boomslang green coloured vinyl housed in a single pocket sleeve with spot gloss finish, 16 page booklet and download, pressed in Europe via Domino.