Led by two sisters, HKK play bare-bones, shouty garage punk. Eleven songs go by in a brief 25 minutes. Best of all, they recall when “pop punk” still sounded a little punk.

If there’s musical growth shown since their last album, Daddy’s Girl, it’s in the vocals which – though they still trade monotone shouts – branch out into longer melodies.

On the whole, This Is Broken sounds darker and sludgier than their previous material. The title track does especially, where they combine their straight-ahead pop-punk with a catchy but eerie melody. It’s no Samhain but it’s not a cute song about bowling.

“Last to Know” rumbles over double-time drums while the lyrics lament a cute boy being gay. Yet, these two girls singing about a gay boy still sound tougher and cooler than Splithabit.

Like they did with their last record, HKK close with a cover of a song by an ex-Runaway. Here they manhandle Joan Jett’s version of Gary Glitter’s “Do You Wanna Touch.” It’s sexy in a jeans and hoodie kind of way.

Right or wrong, don’t it turn you on?

–TA