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72 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
4 1/2 stars...loads of fun, October 1, 2000
The Dandy Warhols are one cheeky band. Amidst today's one-hit-wonder pop music scene, where buzzbin bands go from being the second coming to yesterday's news practically overnight (a fate that The Dandy Warhols narrowly escaped with their 1997 hit 'Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth'), the band decided to make "one last classic album" in the tradition of the great albums of the late sixties and early seventies, where the entire recording is remembered more than the one or two hit singles it may spawn. That's an audacious thing to do (after all, the music biz is all about pushing singles), but for real music fans, it's a godsend, and the resulting product, Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia, is one of the most enjoyable albums of the year, and definitely the most fun.Guitarist/vocalist/producer Courtney Taylor-Taylor and his crew plundered the classic rock vaults to create a wildly eclectic album. Notable styles that were 'lifted' are Burt Bacharach ('Godless'), The Beatles ('Mohammed'), Led Zeppelin III ('Country Leaver'), The Byrds ('Cool Scene'), Iggy Pop and The Velvet Underground ('Shakin''), Gram Parsons ('The Gospel') and Buffalo Springfield ('Big Indian'). Some people have also noted the sly irony in the song 'Godless', which borrows the intro to George Harrison's 'My Sweet Lord'. The classic album sound is also mimicked to perfection, with a warm, bass-heavy sound, luscious guitar overdubs, beautiful vocal harmonies, and as a final kicker, cross-fades between songs to give 13 Tales a continuous feel. Taylor-Taylor's chameleonlike voice is the real star here. One minute he's delivering the vocals in a whisper-like tone, the next he's evoking Lou Reed while doing an eighties-style rap, then he's sounding like Iggy Pop, then he's harmonizing like the White Album-era Beatles, and as a final coup de grace, he sings the country-style album closer 'The Gospel' in a voice that sounds amazingly close to Thom Yorke of Radiohead. Every song on the album is loads of fun, especially 'Country Leaver', 'Solid', 'Horse Pills', 'Cool Scene', and 'Shakin'', but the real great song (and ironically, potential huge single) is the sardonic 'Bohemian Like You'. Not since Jarvis Cocker's legendary class-war diatribes 'Common People' and 'Sorted For E's & Wizz' has anyone so hilariously lampooned wannabe hipsters. Over a guitar riff blatantly stolen from The Rolling Stones' 'Brown Sugar', Taylor-Taylor sings, "so what do you do?/oh yeah I wait tables too/no I haven't heard your band/cause you guys are pretty new" before launching into a (yet again) Stones-like "woo-hoo!" chorus. Irresistable! People will probably overemphasize Taylor-Taylor's social commentary, but that's just prevalent in one song. As for the rest of the songs on 13 Tales, there's a reason the lyrics weren't included with the cd; as Taylor-Taylor sings in 'Cool Scene', "I really don't care what I sing/and I really doubt you know what I mean." Hey, forget about finding witty bon mots in the songs, sit back, and have a blast listening to this fabulous album.
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33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dandy Concept?, January 31, 2002
I don't believe I will ever forget the first time I ever heard Godless, standing in the shaft of sunlight at the listening station of the Virgin record store. I was already a huge fan of the Dandy Warhols, so I knew what I was getting into: I was almost giddy with anticipation. And the first few chords washed over me and I knew it would be great and it almost sounds silly, but I felt like . . . joy. It was a memorable moment. But as time has passed and I've listened to this album over and over and over again, I find that it isn't wearing as well as their earlier effort, Come Down. It is very difficult to explain why. For those of you unfamiliar with the Dandies, I will tell you that they are a rock band. As in the style of the great ones, their songs are founded on acoustic rhythm guitar, on top of which are layered electric guitars, various unusual sounding keyboards, occasional horns, and an excellent pounding rhythm section. From their name you would guess (as I did) that there is some Velvet Underground influence here, and you would be right, but the Dandies have frankly moved way beyond that. It's more instructive, I think, to define them by a movement rather than a particular band, and I would associate them with the time when hard rock went psychedelic, circa 1966, when Bob Dylan went electric, and even the gentle Donovan was doing Hurdy Gurdy Man. And Thirteen Tales is a great album, no doubt about it, especially the first three songs, which listening to is like being transported. All are really original, big sounding, beautiful, bizarre, moving songs; the kind of thing we have come to expect from the Dandies. But beyond that . . . well, there are still a bunch of great songs. Bohemian, Cool Scene, Solid, and Shakin' are are all meaty, beaty rock songs. But, do they really compare with Boys Better, Minnesoter or Last Junkie? Sleep is a slower, more beautiful song, but it is about the only one, and is still not nearly as dreamy and shimmering as Orange, Whipping Tree, or Green. In the final analysis, Thirteen Tales, while technically superb, seems to lack the heart of Come Down. I think I remember reading somewhere that the Dandies, with this album, decided to create what they perceived to be a classic rock album, with one great song after the other, like the great rock legends. And they did. In the process though, and without perhaps even realizing it themselves, they put together what they thought OTHER people wanted, and compromised--maybe only slightly--their own unique vision. Great as this album is, it doesn't quite reach their potential. Of course, this is saying quite a bit.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Last Classic Rock Album, August 2, 2000
After waiting three years, the day has finally arrived. A new album by the Dandy Warhols, and quite possibly their best yet. Although it doesn't have some of the slow heavy psychadelic tracks from Dandys Rule OK and ...the Dandy Warhols Come Down, every song has unique qualities that make each one worthwhile. Basically, it comes down to one simple fact: this record rocks. The first track is "Godless" which is also the first US single, and it sets the pace for the album, always staying at this zenith of quality. Some of my favorites are "Country Leaver", "Horse Pills", "Get Off", and "Bohemian Like You", another of the album's singles. Even if you haven't heard either of the band's first two albums, you should buy this as soon as you can. The vocal harmonies are as tight and layered as ever, and the band seems to have gone deeper into arrangements, including horns and strings on some of the tracks and layering guitar, bass, and organ sounds more than on the other albums. The first few thousand albums pressed also contain a bonus disc, which includes "White Gold", "Phone Call", and live versions of the band's hit single "Not if You Were the Last Junkie on Earth" and "I Love You".
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