Customer Reviews

Earth To The Dandy Warhols

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Oregon quartet have finally found their way to their psychedelic spiritual home.
Dumped by their label after 2005's almost unlistenable Odditorium or Warlords of Mars, the Dandy Warhols have wisely refocused and have mostly ditched the doodling and childish shouting.
For their first independent album, they have fashioned a back to the future space-age scenario which can sound overcooked and out of date ("Mission Control").
The first track "The World The People Together (Come On)", is far from the tuneless dirge you'll initially suspect, "Welcome To The Third World" takes you on a naughty funk odyssey, while they've somehow managed to rope in the usually elusive ex-Dire Straits mainman, Mark Knopfler on "Love Song".
As on their previous albums, the songs consistently flow into one another, but this heavily-crafted sequencing is also the band's undoing, since the lack of variation eventually becomes wearing.
This is by far the band's least accessible album to date - not necessarily be a bad thing, depending on your tolerance levels - and although perseverance is rewarded in large patches, the final third somehow feels like an elaborate in-joke.
The first time listener may be horrified. Taylor-Taylor's production is swaddled in layers of guitar, indecipherable lyrics and Zia McCabe's unsympathetic keyboard.
Repeated plays reveal the album's secrets.
It is not catchy, for sure, but this is The Dandy Warhols at their most natural and honest.
The presence of Mark Knopfler and Heartbreakers' ace guitarist Mike Campbell shows the band still exert pulling power and, even at their messiest, the Portland Oregon-based outfit can still deliver, while remorseless metal piledriver Talk Radio would put many heavy rockers to shame.
All is not wholly well: the final third of the album is clogged with stodge but there's enough here to keep them going.
Pick of the album:"World the People Together (Come On)", "Welcome to the Third World", and "Mis Amigos".

I like Valerie Yum (an ode to Valium?), but the rest of the CD is very average stuff. I was hoping for a total rebound from Odditorium, but unfortunately the Dandys are heading in the wrong direction. What happened to the cool stuff you could play over and over again??? This sounds like a mish-mash of songs that wouldn't make it on their earlier CD's except for Odditorium...If you are new to the Dandy Warhols then buy Dandy's Rule, OK? or Come Down, I hate to say it but I guess they may never be that good again!

From the very first notes of "The World Come On," I knew that the mediocre critical response to this new Dandy Warhols album was dead wrong. I've been hooked on the Dandys since "The Dandy Warhols Come Down." I love the way they build songs on amazing grooves, sometimes hard-rocking, sometimes slow and hypnotic, sometimes both. Taylor-Taylor is an extraordinary vocalist and mimic, sounding alternately like Lou Reed, Ric Ocasek, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, or anyone else, however he sees fit. And the others are absolutely rock-solid in their ability to add support and muscle to Taylor-Taylor's creations.

Their last album, "Odditorium," was a truly bizarre mess. At first, I found it very off-putting, but it grew on me over time, mostly because of the Dandy Warhols' impeccable sense of rhythm and harmonies. "Earth to the Dandy Warhols" is another ecclectic weird-out, jumping from genre to genre, the only real connection between the songs being the unique flavor of the Dandy's sound and the layered, dense production.

I can really see why someone new to the Dandy Warhols would have a hard time "getting" this cd or liking it very much. I'm not sure I would quite understand what it was all about if I hadn't spent so much time with their other albums. For newcomers, I strongly suggest checking out their previous cds before jumping into this one. "The Dandy Warhols Come Down," "Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia," and "Welcome to the Monkey House" are all more consistent than this album. But once you've checked those out, I'm sure you'll find plenty to love on "Earth to the Dandy Warhols" as well (even if you find yourself skipping the final song, "Musee D'Nougat" more often than not).

After spending some serious headphone time with this, I'd say it feels like a cross between "Odditorium" and "Monkey House." It's got the sprawling, loose feel of "Odditorium," but it's sleek and punctuated by electronics like "Welcome to the Monkey House." Like all Dandy Warhols albums, though, it's decadent, chock-full of grooves, and gorgeous.

I am a Dandys Junkie. Cant get enough.Really love Odditorium despite the critics. Their dreamy/psychdelic retro sound is something to groove on. But I must say I was truely dissappointed with Earth to Dandy Warhols. Maybe the wait and build-up/expectations was too much. Truely dissapointed with Taylors vocals. Too synthetic and difficult to hear at times.This disc sounds more like monkey house though not as good.I think they strayed from the essence of their sound. Still looking forward to seeing them this month for the first time though.

Wow, man. This record is incredible. The order of the songs threw me off for about a day. I would actually remix this one to start with "Wasp and the Lotus" (awesome grinding madness),cut "Welcome to the third World" out completely and tack tracks 2 and 1 on at the end. But after "Wasp" the crushing blows just keep on coming, Talk Radio, Love Song, Dreamt of Yes, Outlaw Truckers and Now You Love Me. Big,powerful songs all. But then they drop a gigantic space monster from the sky and obliterate everything...Valerie Yum. Good God what a song.

This album goes well with the progression of The Dandy Warhols.

If you aren't into Disco and the groovy beats that reside in that genre (though not the lyricism style) you should steer clear of at least half this album.

But if you were a fan of Odditorium and Welcome to the Monkey House, and you can handle a disco-ish beat, you will enjoy this album.

I recommend it to any Dandy Warhol fans. Also David Bowie and Lou Reed fans should definitely see what those two musician's legacy has spawned in indie rock.

Thanks,

Brother Rabbit
http://[......]

As a loyal Dandy Warhol fan, it's no surprise that this album doesn't disappoint. It's range in songs is typical Warhols and I just love it! BUY THIS ALBUM!!!

Owning all of the Dandy's previous work it was a no brainer to buy this, maybe it will grow on me but so far nothing has really captured me. I think it is as good as their first album which is their weakest in my opinion. It just an album that never gets you into it. Maybe it will slowly infiltrate my brain? It does have some interesting sounds much like the different sounds that Garbage used to come out with but in Dandy's sort of way. If you are a Dandy's fan you will need to buy for just that reason. If it would have had a couple of my powerful songs I wouldn't been so hard on this album. Greg

No shoegazing here, the feets are moving too fast...This is DWs most accessible album yet, and their most uptempo, pleasantly likable album to date. It begins with a B-52s/Talking Heads like pop tune that establishes that the Courtney man is after the song first and this continues on through 12 bouncing, driving guitar-driven space tunes that has nice alt-country in Love Song and even brilliant doo-wop, sock hop meets space opera in the OutLaw Trucker song and fills in all spaces through their catalog with clearly genius plain and simple pop songs like Mission Control and Now You Love Me.

The Dandy's keep getting better and more expansive with each album and the sheer energy of this album eclipses anything they've ever done.

I'm going to see them at the Vic with Darker My Love and The UpsideDown!
See your there!

(Also, there is a 13th song that is an elongated quiet drone that is added purely to be listened to if the previous 12 songs were accompanied by some fashionable drug of your choice... As usual, they have to put the Warhol into their name with some throwaway, misdirection that distracts from the cohesion of the whole album and this one does. Oh well, They wouldn't be Dandy without Warhol..)

Jim Harris
A Bottle of Rain
Nowhere Near the Sea of Cortez

I'm sorry--I am a fan but come on, there's not a song on here with comprehensible lyrics. Too much mumbling and vocal distortion for my tastes. The songs are likeable and freaky enough, but by the end you're about ready to strangle Taylor-Taylor if he doesn't come up with one semi-understandable chorus. The lyrics may well be amazing, but you just can't hear 'em.

Looking back on this a few months later, it's grown on me, and I'm bumping it up to three stars. But the vocals are still annoying.