Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Put your arms around a memory, September 23, 2006
I loved the Dolls from the very beginning, in the Oscar Wilde room at the Mercer Arts Center, when nobody came to see them & Billy was still the drummer. I was there at the Little Hippodrome for the Red Patent Leather finis. I saw their triumphant return at Little Steven's Underground Garage, with tears in my eyes when David sang Lonely Planet Boy & You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory. Tears for lost Dolls & lost youth. The '70's Dolls were something to see. If you saw them in their hey day you know they were touched by greatness. Like the early Rolling Stones. Gonna be bigger than the Beatles! The rest, as they say, is history.
I avoided buying this disc, and owned it for a week before I played it. How can just David and Syl recreate the mayhem and music in the new millenium? Somehow, they do. The first 4 songs on the CD - from We're all in Love, Runnin' Around, Plenty of Music, Dance Like a Monkey -the reconstituted NY Dolls take control. It's a blast of attitude, witty lyrics, and solid fun. Several reviewers have slagged the ballads & slower tunes, but I think songs like Maimed Happiness, Punishing World, and especially I Ain't Got Nothin' are spot on. There are flashes of regret, bitterness, introspection that were unthinkable 30+ years ago. It's appropriate for men in their '50's to look back & ponder. I Ain't Got Nothin', in the hands of anybody else but David Johansen would be an excuse for a pity party. But long after it finished playing, I could hear the heartfelt and plaintive delivery. For me the lone clinker is Gotta Get Away From Tommy. Won't be listening to that too many times.
Highlights for me are "Fishnets & Cigarettes" - managing to create the atmosphere and the energy of '70's New York club scenes where band and after band, led by the Dolls, created a new rock benchmark. "Dancing on the Lip of a Volcano" is evocative & magic. "Gimme Love & Turn on the Light" replaces teenage lust with grown up sex with an old fashioned blues churned up & spat out. A bow to Iggy, it smacks of a marriage between the Stooges & the Dolls.
Syl's signature harmonies and tunesmithery is consistent throughout. Despite other reviewers comparisons to David Johansens solo turns, I beg to differ - this is a Dolls album. David, older, wiser, gruffer, is channeling the spirit from within to earmark his lyrics with the droll, snotty, whimsical self he first displayed in 1972. He's still good/bad, but he's not evil.
There's a lot about One Day... that intentionally harkens back to the beginning - the monkey noises on Dance Like a Monkey, lyrics, song structure, arrangements. It raises the spectre of who's not there. Sam Conte attempts some signature Thunders riffing, but it just reminds me that no matter how people have tried, & many have again & again throughout the years,no one has mastered Johnny's lurching, buzzsaw solos & phrasing. The drummer is very good, but he just reminds me how Jerry Nolan hammered home the back beat. Jerry was under rated as a drummer. He was the key to the Dolls sound. Sami Yaffa's definitely a better bass player than Arthur, but all it does is remind me of that big lovable lug standing on stage in his torn fishnets & beatup yellow platform boots attempting to figure out how to breath and play at the same time. It's bittersweat. But I smile at the memory. You CAN put your arms around a memory.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Long time gone, good times back, August 31, 2006
Thirty years since "Too Much Too Soon?" Was I really still in High School and driving a '68 GTO while blasting "Stranded in the Jungle" from a cassette deck? Dear lord, this is scary stuff. And from "Stranded in the Jungle," the long layover to get back in the states ends at "Dance Like a Monkey." Which, by the way, jams like Cheap Trick tearing into Motown and crossing it with David Jo's "Funky But Chic." The Lipstick Killers are back, oh worshippers of yore, and are ready to chase your granddaughters.
Well, at least 2/5's of them. Surviving members David Johansen and Syl Sylvian dredge up a lot of the old greasy sparks of those first two classic records here, and their age has granted them some tempered wisdom. The ballad "Dancing On the Lip of a Volcano" (featuring teenaged Doll fan Mikey Stipe) is slick and smart, something their drug addled early days wouldn't have allowed them. With Jack Douglas giving the band a sturdy production job, and the extra cast members filling in ably for the departed, "One day...." exceeds in expectations.
The favorite moment for me, though, is "Fishnets and Cigarettes." Barking out the lyric with cheeky nostalgia, it is David and Syl's grand glam tribute to Kane, Nolan and Thunders, as well as the heady days of the 70s NY outbreak of punk. It cheerfully recalls the days when the Dolls were actually dangerous...not just to themselves, but to the perceived rock and roll hierarchy. Funny how you can listen to this (and the older albums now) and hear so many current bands, from My Chemical Romance to The Black Crowes, echoed in the Doll's musical legacy. Despite the overly wordy title, "Some Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This" is a blast from the past reminder of a band that all but invented the scene that spawned everyone from The Ramones to Twisted Sister.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Return Of The Lipstick Killers, July 28, 2006
After thirty-two years, the Dolls have returned. And they have found just the right sweet spot for their new record. No longer pre-punk punks, David and Syl (and the "new" Dolls) find a perfect balance between adolescent cocksure arrogance and sage-like maturity. The Dolls were always about reckless, yet positive, f-u-n. I dare you to put on their first two records (or for that matter their latest) and to remain seated in your chair. You have to dance. You have to (at least try and) kiss the girl. The Dolls have always been a Shangri-las soundtrack for a post-Stones (circa "Sticky Fingers") rock'n'roll. And the new record has all of these qualities in spades. Every track will have you singing along by the second chorus. And the songs are relevant. The words are David's and they address everything from current events ("Dance Like A Monkey" had better be this summer's "Thong Song") to growing ungracefully old happily. They key element in this mix that makes this album different from David's solo albums is Syl. He adds that romantic rawk'n'roul spark from his backing vocals to his signature grooves. Its easy for all of us to twist the songs to preconceptions about how we feel about the band or its members, but the bonus DVD kinda puts all the whiney reviews to shame. It professionally captures the ramshackle joy that the bandmembers were bringing to the studio. How many soulless rockumentaries have we seen with bored bands being boring in the studio? This doc shows how much fun these guys were having writing songs together (each member has at least one credit) and playing together (which comes through loud and clear on the finished lp). Bravo, Dolls! Hope you swing through HOTlanta soon!
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