The Pierces -- sisters Allison and Catherine -- hail from Alabama where they were home schooled and developed a taste for country music. When their self-titled country debut bombed, they moved to New York City, started hanging out with the singer/songwriter crowd and developed a style that blossoms like a bouquet of deadly nightshade. On Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge the arrangements are part folk-rock, part new-new wave, part pure pop, but they don't sound like they were slapped together in an attempt to find commercial success. They all keep the spotlight where it belongs -- on the songs and the sisters' wickedly understated delivery. Secret is a threatening waltz about hidden truths accented by a drunken calliope and the provocative tag line "two can keep a secret if one of them is dead. Boring is an ironic new wave gypsy stomp that delivers a deadpan list of everything that makes life so difficult for the jaded. Lights On is Prince-lite, a slow jam with breathy harmonies, salacious ambisexual lyrics and plenty of nasty humor. Ruin casts a hex on a former lover; its venomous lyric balanced by a bubbling mix of glockenspiel, glistening electric guitar and succulent sibling harmonies. Kill! Kill! Kill! is a bouncy vaudevillian number that celebrates the intoxicating qualities of a love/hate relationship, while Boy in a Rock and Roll Band is a seductive romp with a '20s feel, brimming over with sly sexuality. Go to Heaven is a shameless song of sexual love with a late-'50s, early-'60s doo wop-meets-girl group sound, dripping with gorgeous harmony vocals. The Pierces manage a difficult feat here, sounding sexy without being coy, and threatening without falling back on the usual femme fatal stereotypes. The 13 pretty pills they deliver may be poisonous, but they're easy to swallow. ~ j. poet, Rovi

1		Secret
2		Boring
3		Sticks and Stones
4		Lights On
5		Lies
6		Turn On Billie
7		Ruin
8		Three Wishes
9		The Power Of...
10		Kill! Kill! Kill!
11		It Was You
12		Boy In a Rock and Roll Band
13		Go to Heaven