Hi there!
My name's Nick, and I'm a co-runner of this blog with Joseph. It's a pleasure to have you here! I'm a huge enthusiast in the field of music. I listen to all sorts of things, as you'll pick up from this blog. As Joseph has already mentioned, this is a blog we're dedicating to music. So I thought it might be a good idea for my first post to be an album review, something which I already do and enjoy doing. I have already been submitting reviews to Sputnikmusic, which is a website I am following very closely as of late. So here you go! A review of the Portland rockers' The Dandy Warhols' Seventh (Ninth?) full length album This Machine, as seen on my Sputnikmusic page. Enjoy!
My name's Nick, and I'm a co-runner of this blog with Joseph. It's a pleasure to have you here! I'm a huge enthusiast in the field of music. I listen to all sorts of things, as you'll pick up from this blog. As Joseph has already mentioned, this is a blog we're dedicating to music. So I thought it might be a good idea for my first post to be an album review, something which I already do and enjoy doing. I have already been submitting reviews to Sputnikmusic, which is a website I am following very closely as of late. So here you go! A review of the Portland rockers' The Dandy Warhols' Seventh (Ninth?) full length album This Machine, as seen on my Sputnikmusic page. Enjoy!
This Machine - The Dandy Warhols (2012, The End Records)
Most bands too easily revert to their cultish behaviour
after a small surge of breakthroughs pretty quickly. All it takes are a string
of completely alienating releases. Bands that choose to do this, however,
hardly ever garner the attention they deserve when they inevitably begin to make
real music again. For some, it is a dream. For others, it feels justified at
least. For the select few it can be a real nightmare, fans and musicians alike.
Who knows which category our fair Dandies fall under? Haven’t they just been
joking around throughout their entire career?
It seems their shortest, sweetest, and most sobering release
to date makes us more aware than ever that The Dandy Warhols are capable of
completely intentional moments of heartfelt musicianship, and not just a series
of in-jokes that even the wider Portland community would miss. While it is
saddening to hear Taylor-Taylor incorrectly acknowledge his aging and waning
relevance (the wrong kind of self-awareness to brandish in most music, in my
opinion, and it’s ever present, in-your-face, front and centre with bells on in
“Enjoy Yourself”) it is heart-warming in comparison to remind yourself that
these guys have given no shits for 18 years and counting. “I Am Free” and
“Enjoy Yourself” might showcase a completely contrasting style to the rest of
the album, but it’s a style the band has already established in the past, so it
feels justified.
Other components of their sound has undergone a significant
overhaul for this album too. The wooden, airy, strangely gothic feel that they
have chosen to develop over the years between albums really shines on “The
Autumn Carnival”. They also do well to avoid staple indie traits (On this
track, instead of using mathy angular guitar riffs in the verse between lyrical
bursts, drummer Brent DeBoer interjects with reverb soaked ‘oh-oh’s. They could
have easily been the former, but what they chose to do works. “Rest Your Head”
might be my favourite Dandys song to date, and among one of my favourite tracks
of all time, for its simplicity and strong, resonant harmonies. It’s a track
I’ve been very eager to hear after I saw them debut the new tracks in Sydney
last year.
Brent DeBoer has grown significantly as a drummer on this
album, too. When do you ever hear tom-beats on a Dandys track? Aside from the
first second of “Nietzsche”, almost never; but you’ll hear plenty on this
album. Token cover “16 Tons”, for example, is a lumbering, brassy number that
oozes lo-fi tom beats never heard from the drummer before. I shed a tear. It
adds a new depth to a band that is well established in creating simple,
psych-pop songs that are driven by very simplistic drum beats. Everything that
the Dandys have known to do in the past is showcased in spades on the album,
with an added depth from DeBoer, to the point where T2 even agreed to let
DeBoer handle album closer “Slide”. This is a big move for someone who is among
the ranks of Billy Corgan and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez in terms of maintaining
control of the band’s output.
The album offers everything the Dandies are known to do
well, and more. Moments of their fuzzed-out experimental days are prevalent on
“Alt. Power” and “SETI vs The Wow! Signal”. Slide represents a new chapter in
the band’s writing process with the introduction of a track T2 had nothing to
do with, and “Don’t Shoot She Cried” and “Rest Your Head” are reminiscent of
their early, early days. “Sad Vacation”, “The Autumn Carnival” and “They’re
Gone” signify the beginning of something new in the band’s ever expanding
palette. I can’t fault this release, because the only way to do so is to
compare this to a certain 13-track album that was released ~10 years ago. The
Dandy’s sound is evidently not broke, so to fix it is simply an added bonus.
Summary: While there’s inevitably an Enjoy Yourself to every Autumn Carnival, the sparse divide in output style feels justified when it comes with the band’s return to form.
4.0/5.0 :)
To read my original review, click here.
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