She donned the mile-high beehive ages before Amy Winehouse and flaunted her sex appeal years before Madonna.
Now ’60s girl-group icon Ronnie Spector, whose sultry vocals made the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” a megahit, is back with The Last of the Rock Stars. The album opens promisingly with punky guitar riffs, courtesy of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner, on “Hey Sah Lo Ney.” The momentum isn’t lost when the Raveonettes lend themselves to their own tune, “Ode to L.A.,” a jangly homage to garage-pop that casts the ideal setting for Spector’s sweet cries. However, Rock Stars tosses a few rotten apples into its bag of treats, like the outdated “Girl From the Ghetto.” Even so, this track is also one of the LP’s most memorable due to Spector’s vengeful lyrics, perhaps directed at controlling ex-factor Phil Spector.
