Dandy Warhols – [Album]

Artist: Dandy Warhols
Album: Distortland
Label: Dine Alone

It’s unlikely that there is any band in rock right now more underrated than the Dandy Warhols. A lot of that has historically had to do with the fact that the band has seemed to go out of its way to throw fans a series of elegant braking balls to confuse and frustrate them; since Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia (a.k.a. “the breakthrough”) came out in 2000, Courtney Taylor-Taylor and company have issued some stiff, electro-infused pop (see Welcome To The Monkey House), some slabs of mild psychedelia (please find Odditorium or Warhols of Mars), a crashing cacophony of experimentation the thing known as The Black Album) and all-around different variants of each which have sometimes hit home (2012’s This Machine was great), but totally left fans cold, on other occasions. The reasoning is simple: while the band has always been focused on their “new what next,” sometimes fans have just wanted “some more of that sound I heard on that older album” – and those are genuine rarities.

As a direct result or the band’s previous working tradition, fans never know what they’re going to get from the Dandy Warhols from release-to-release, and that doesn’t mean even the most open-minded and dedicated fan is going to appreciate it. There have been occasions when the Dandy Warhols have absolutely left their fans behind to follow their muse and that has never been an easy pill to take.

Happily, with Distortland, the Dandy Warhols have fallen upon another genuinely charmed mixture which connects a direct line to the pleasure center of every fan’s brain. That is not to say the music is simple, but it’s a solid mix of rock, pop and electro- which is long on great hooks and short on ambitious but underdeveloped foolishness.

From top to bottom and front to back, fans will find themselves amazed that, while the music reaches in several different directions, Distortland holds together in an incredibly focused manner; there are elements of the indie rock grandeur or Urban Bohemia which are easy to find here, as well as clunking electronics similar to those on Monkey House and textures similar to those on This Machine and other previously untested sounds too, but nothing flies so far off that it threatens to set the album off-balance or really grates listener either – the bigger pushes inspire “ohh”s and “ahh”s here instead of “ew”s. Rather, songs like “Semper Fidelis,” “Styggo” (which features a perfect Seventies drum figure and an anthemic refrain) and “You Are Killing Me” all make the most of a genuine sense of rock greatness and are contrasted by the faux-Brit swagger of “All The Girls In London,” the clunky beats of “Pope Reverend Jim” and “Catcher In The Rye,” which feels like a cast off from Welcome To The Monkey House. Needless to say, yes – Distortland does reach far in order to give listeners a complete album, but at no point does it feel spread too thin.

So will fans be satisfied by Distortland? While some critics may complain that the album reaches in too many directions, fans who have hoped for just a smattering of different sounds for the sake of closure will find this album is the perfect thing to soothe their desire to hear just a little more of the different things the Dandys have done before without committing completely to any of them. In effect, what listeners will find on Distortland is a great and satisfying combination platter.

Artist:
http://www.dandywarhols.com/

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Album:
Distortland is out now. Buy it here on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/DANDY-WARHOLS-DISTORTLAND/dp/B01DXEHVSI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1460127552&sr=8-2&keywords=dandy+warhols+distortland

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