Customer Reviews

Dumb Luck

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It has been six years since Dntel last released a full-length album. Since that time, Jimmy Tamborello has undergone quite a transformation; from underground electro programmer to full-fledged indie pop god. Whether he was busy being one half of the uber-successful The Postal Service or putting out albums as James Figurine, Tamborello has found countless ways to stay busy. "Dumb Luck," the long-awaited follow up to 2001's "Life Is Full of Possibilities," sounds like an expected mixture of everything that Tamborello has accomplished over the last six years. In doing so, it largely abandons the sound that separated Dntel from Tamborello's numerous other projects.

The lead-off and title track, "Dumb Luck" features Tamborello's stylistically unflattering voice offering tidbits of self-pity such as, "Don't forget that it's dumb luck that got you here" or "you can't trust your friends, they will betray you." The song begins with the largely disjointed flutterings of Jimmy's production, but eventually collapses into a simple acoustic guitar with minimal electronic effects in the background. It is a decent song, but like most songs sung by Tamborello (i.e. James Figurine's 2006 album), the production value far outweighs the vocal performance.

In many ways, it feels as if "Dumb Luck" is less of a Dntel album and more of a "Jimmy Tamborello featuring All of His Friends" album. Aside from the title track, every song is sung by a guest performer. Some of these tracks work rather well, while others feel stale and generally unmemorable.

"To a Fault" featuring Grizzly Bear, for example, is a rater awesome track. Here, it actually sounds like a Dntel song should sound like, with minimal emphasis placed on vocals and more on everything else. As such, most of the song is comprised of evidence of Tamborello's unwavering skills as a producer/programmer and it stands out as one of the better songs on the album. On the contrary, "Roll On" is dominated by Jenny Lewis' trademark quasi-country voice and as a result the song sounds absolutely nothing like any other Dntel song to date. Like so many other songs on the album, it features the standard "verse/chorus/verse/chorus" setup. Tamborello's skills are entirely subdued here, and one has to wonder what even classifies this as Dntel and not James Figurine or The Postal Service (aside from the fact that that's what Tamborello says it is).

"Rock My Boat" featuring Mia Doi Todd, is a pretty good song that does a fantastic job of balancing the talents of both artists. Even if it's a bit clichéd to hear an artist sing, "You rock my boat," Mia Doi Todd does a fantastic job of complementing Tamborello's stellar song. Similarly, Andrew Broder offers up the best vocal performance of the album on "Natural Resources." At it's best moments, the song sounds like it could have been pulled right off of Radiohead's Kid A.

Arguably, the most notable vocalist on the album is Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes on "Breakfast In Bed." However, Oberst tones down his trademark emotionally wrought vocals and presents a completely uninspired melody, sounding almost exactly like another one of his songs, "Kathy With a Ks Song" (without the aforementioned emotion). Though his emotionally-vacant vocals actually blend rather well with Tamborello's song, one can't help be disappointed by their absence.

Overall, Dntel's "Dumb Luck" should satisfy any fan of The Postal Service or James Figurine. However, Dntel fans who were expecting a revival of the artist's unrivaled sound from previous albums might be a little disappointed. Personally, though I enjoy this album a lot, I can't help but feel a bit cheated. I am a huge Dntel fan, and this album offers nothing that would even suggest that this is the same Tamborello moniker. If the artist insists on using multiple monikers to promote his music, he should do a better job of defining each one. "Dumb Luck," though good, sounds absolutely nothing previous Dntel albums, and more like everything else Tamborello has done in recent years...for better or for worse.

Recommended for fans of The Postal Service, James Figurine, or any of the artists who lend their vocals to this album.

Key Tracks:
1. "To A Fault (featuring Grizzly Bear)"
2. "I'd Like to Know (featuring Lali Puna)"
3. "Rock My Boat (featuring Mia Doi Todd)"
4. "Natural Resources (featuring Andrew Broder of Fog)"

6 out of 10 Stars

Jimmy Tamborello is one of my favorite electronic musicians. His new CD "Dumb Luck" is a quite a departure from "Life is Full of Possibilities." The CD is an amazing mix of Electronic and Acoustic music. It blends Jimmy's electronic style well with the guitars and vocals provided by his guests. He is one of the best around, and highly under-appreciated. His work is totally original, and always fresh and new and inspiring. I give this 5/5 stars.

I was put onto Dntel by a friend a while back, and I loved their two previous album. Thus, I was very excited by this new release, and had VERY high expectations. Fortunately, even my elitism wasn't disappointed harshly. I love the dreamy songs, and adore the pensive ones too. The standout track is "Breakfast in Bed" featuring Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes; I can't get enough of it.

Hopefully, you'll purchase and enjoy!

After hitting the big time with his side project The Postal Service, Jimmy Tamborello returns to Dntel, his more glitch-oriented persona. "Dumb Luck" adds some flutter and wow to what sounds to be a melodic little folk-pop ditty, while "To a Fault" layers voices onto waves of noise. The folk-glitch harmonizing continues with "Roll On," which is almost pop-friendly. Indeed, much of the album flirts with gentle pop melodies; a hint of country creeps through onto "The Distance." Mia Doi Todd's vocals soar majestically over the low tones of "Rock My Boat" and the wobbly tones on "Breakfast in Bed" raise both of those tracks in prominence. Overall, however, DUMB LUCK feels a lot more loose and more unfocused than LIFE IS FULL OF POSSIBILITIES. It's still wonderful for a mellow night, however, one full of stars and fireflies.

As a huge fan of Dntel's other work, especially Life is Full of Possibilities, I about freaked out when I saw that a new album was out. It's taken me awhile to get an opinion on it.

At first, the lyrics kind of get in the way. It seemed too much of a vocal "hipster indie" album and that really pissed me off at first. However, I have tried really hard to get into this album because I just cannot give up on this guy. I've found that I actually really like this album, but for totally different reasons that I like the previous ones.

The melodic nature of this album still gets in the way at times, as I've always been more intrigued by his sampling/sequencing. This album, electronically, is phenominal. This guy thinks of stuff that is just mind boggling.

A lot of the vocalists I'm not crazy about (track #4) but to be able to pull this kind of stuff off - melodic vocals and guitar work along with the glitch, is actually pretty refreshing to hear and that's where I learned to love this album.

My favorite track is #6 - Rock my Boat, followed by #2, To a Fault. I'd say this because the vocals in these songs are more interesting/flow well with the concept of the album.

If anyone is just getting into this type of stuff and are more interested in the electronic aspect rather than the vocal indie-ness, I recommend checking out Lusine's "Iron City" or "Serial Hodgepodge", Mum's "Yesterday was Dramatic, Today is OK", or Fennesz's album "Venice" which actually has a really cool vocal track by David Sylvian. Check it out.

I pre-ordered this album after listening to the "Dumb Luck" track. Thinking that the pure beauty of his voice and music was going to be throughout the album was abruptly interrupted by various artists that through me off from what I thought would have been a great album. In Dntel's first album "Life is Full of Possibilities", it was lacking vocal and direction, making that album sound mostly like background noise and incomplete tracks.

Now with the album, Dntel has invited various artists to join in this album which in my opinion kills this album and Dntels true image. Songs like "Roll on" shocked me to listen to since I don't see how a "country" sounded song fits in with Dntels image.

Personally, I found some songs enjoyable, but for the most part, Dntel needs to be SOLO with his work, including vocals. Dntel fans, listen the album first before

Under the name of Dntel, Jimmy Tamborello has taken awhile making the follow-up to "Life is Full of Possibilities." Sometimes I doubted he'd get around to producing one.

But after six years, at last he has -- "Dumb Luck," a wobbling trippy little album, saturated with some of the top indie talents. The opening is rather weak, but the remaining songs are beautifully poignant and beautiful.

It opens with what sounds like a mellotron having a grand mal seizure. Tamborello croons, "Just don't forget/that it's dumb luck/that got you here/don't fool yourself/cause misfortune's waiting/for the best time to appear.... And no one remembers even one word that left your mouth/All the melodies were stolen from the songs by someone else..."

After it's liquefied your eardrums, the music thankfully smooths out into a sweeping Sigur-Rosian trip-epic, and switches again into a folky little tune augmented with snowy synth. And Tamborello continues ominously singing of the lack of creativity, soul and talent of his subject. All I could think of was certain MTV stars.

The songs that follow are more even -- trippling psychfolk, delicate windy blip-ballads, country songs over a layer of buzzing synth, jangling little ballads, trip-brass and soulful chorales, blurry rockers, and finally an exquisitely ethereal little ballad.

And the list of collaborators reads like an indie who's-who: Conor Oberst, Fog, Jenny Lewis, Grizzly Bear, the Mystic Chords of Memory, Lali Puna and Mia Doi Todd. All these are brilliantly and almost seamlessly made, except for "The Distance" with Arthur & Yu -- too jangly at times, but still listenable.

Tamborello weaves together these various styles with his own instrumentation -- there's some ringing electric guitars, softer acoustic ones, glitches, trombones and eerie sound effects. These are all wrapped in Tamborello's trembling synth, mellow tones and airy expansive sweeps of sound. Occasionally, he doesn't even contribute much, just pretties the edges of the melody.

The vocals are also quite nice -- none of them really match, but they match the music. Tamborello's is smooth and thoughtful, while some other highlights include Todd's soulful ballad, Daniel Rossen's folky warbling, and Oberst's quirky solo. The Mystic Chords and Lali Puna offer shifting, ethereal murmurs instead of solid vocals.

The main flaw? The collaborations dominate the entire album, and at times I found myself wishing for a pure Dntel song, without the influence of another band.

Dntel's second album is quite different from the first, especially with the cornucopia of guest collaborators. But "Dumb Luck" belies the message of the first song.

"Dumb Luck" is a far cry from "Life is Full of Possibilities" insofar as the richness of Jimmy's talent explodes in many different directions rather than sticking to instrumental-heavy electronica. His quests on the album make it all happen. The title track (and first track) belies the rest of the album by its indie-emo tone of masturbatory self-pity. For the most part, the album is diverse in mood and tone (never plunging into full-on happy as a clown mode, but we wouldn't want that anyway).
My personal favorite tracks are:
Roll On
I'd Like to Know
Breakfast in Bed

If you're on the fence about this album, I'd just go for it. Even if you don't love it as much as I do, I think it'd be extremely hard to dislike it.