This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Thank heaven for bad girls — ’cause bad girls get better every day. At least, The Donnas do.
On their sixth album and second major-label release, the California punkettes trade in their Ramones shirts, buy some old Rolling Stones albums and get in touch with their inner guitar-rawk goddesses. Leaner, cleaner and sharper than their previous work, Gold Medal’s dozen cuts find the ladies tempering their trademark girl-group brashness with slightly mellower ’70s rock and metal grooves, stronger melodies and more laid-back, sultry vocals.
Sure, they still “just want to get you undressed.” But instead of just kneeing you in the crotch and ripping off your clothes, Brett Anderson and co. shimmy up beside you, breathe huskily in your ear and talk you out of your trousers — before kicking you out of bed and asking “is that all you’ve got for me?” Ouch. It doesn’t get much better — or badder — than that.
Wish I was half as impressed with the DualDisc technology utilized on Gold Medal. It’s the newest music-biz gimmick — CD audio tracks on one side of a disc, DVD content on the other — but if this example was anything to go by, it’s a long way from perfected. The thicker-than-normal disc clattered annnoyingly in my player, skipped at the slightest touch, crashed my computer — and most of the CD’s final track was missing. According to the record label, and initial run of defective discs was recalled and replaced in stores. Even so, it’s a long way a Gold Medal performance.
