REVIEW: Dodgy, The Dodgy Album (A & M, U.K.)
- Tim Kennedy
Every now and then, a band emerges to bear comparison with the glory that was the Beatles. Inevitably they just don't match up. How can any group take inspiration from that great songwriting partnership and manage to emerge from their colossal shadow? Maybe Elvis Costello in the early stages of his career...but this review isn't about him.
One such group is Dodgy. Their total lack of image and absurd approach to cover art have meant they are immediately at a disadvantage with many of the deadly-earnest music journals of the English scene. However, they garnered some grudging respect for their melodic guitar and strong tunes Ironically, their appetite for 'partying' has a higher profile than their product amongst the press. A recent piece on the Stone Roses progress in Britain's New Musical Express (NME) interviewed Dodgy members who had been working alongside them at a Monmouth, Wales recording studio and their relationship with the demon weed is much documented. This is a bit of diversion because they should be famed for being, in the opinion of this writer, the finest songsmiths of our times. With their new album Homegrown just released I thought to introduce them to a wider audience and review their first mighty album.
They have managed to gather a moderate, fanatical following by word of mouth. The first album, The Dodgy Album (1992) is a classic which like many of the best groups around now draws its influence from the sixties and early seventies.
The opening track "Water Under The Bridge" recalls the Who's "I Can See For Miles" especially in its chorus but certainly its headlong adrenalin rush. The sense of space in their songs is strong and none of their songs go on too long. Like The Jam on All Mod Cons in tracks such as "In The Crowd", they are able to make an extended playout of a track interesting in itself. "I Need Another" is a slower number with trippy lyrics and like the opener it contains echoes of Beatles circa 1965-66, in songs like "Ticket To Ride". "Lovebirds" is a simply a superb slab of fast sixties guitar pop. I particularly love the guitar wig-out towards the end of this one. "Stand By Yourself" is another song in this vein.
"Satisfied" recalls latter-day Squeeze with a soulful blast of horns and a strings flourish thrown in for good measure.
It is followed by a coda which bears closer comparison to psychedelia such as Primal Scream's "Screamadelica". The hissing seas of synths convey a kind of claustrophobic mantra.
"Grand Old Oak Tree" contains some excellent puns "You take the p out of my pride now I'm being taken for a ride". The melody reminds me of something Primal Scream might have written in their first album, medium paced, with a nice stately ending. The lyric seems to refer to betrayal by a lover.
"As My Time Goes By" begins in Happy Mondays style but the chorus has trippy echoes of the Beatles' "Dear Prudence". The lyric is clearly referring to altered states of some kind. The middle-eight puts one in mind of the Seeds with the swirly guitar solo and hammond organ.
There is another side to this band, and the latter part of the album contains some of the most atmospheric gloom heard on a record in recent years. "Never Again" conveys the deflated state and emotional vacuum of an ended relationship. A stark and echoing minor chord conveys the despair and the lyrics are equally comfortless: "everything new seems so outdated to me". The guitar soloing is stark in the production and brings the misery home. "Cold Tea" comes in the same vein although the more upbeat theme implies some coming to terms with the loss "there's nothing worse than cold tea". The tune is medium paced and reminds me of the Who's 1970 Who's Next album.
"We're Not Going To Take This Anymore" is the closing track and it is a triumphal medium-paced number which starts like Robert Plant's "In The Mood". The chorus is more like something Mott The Hoople might have written in their pomp heyday. The vocal, as throughout the album, recalls John Lennon at his drawling lazy best.
A most impressive aspect of this group is their impeccable musicianship. The playing in all departments is first class. This group are supremely confident in their abilities and it shows.
To bring this nearer to date the current single is "Melodies Haunt You" on A&M Records (in the UK). The title track is a folk-rock effort with horns, sounding very like the Kinks circa the Village Green Preservation Society, crossed with Small Faces circa Lazy Sunday. The involvement of Paul (Stone Roses album) Schroeder and Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds reinforces their northern guitar pop credentials. The other tracks are "The Snake" -fast, horns-embellished, an odd lyric which appears to have a sexual metaphor hidden in there, it reminds me of the Wonder Stuff's later material; "Don't Go" is a dancey melodic number but closer to their previous work, paced similar to, say, Happy Mondays; "Summer Fayre" is my favorite from the single, a psychedelic number featuring booming bass and swooping synth. It only remains to say that the sleeve and disk design is exceptionally silly.
In these days of overproduced mediocrities and newcomers being raised far too early to critical acclaim, here is a group who have developed at their own pace and with pride in their craft and a smile on their faces they are emerging head and shoulders above the herd. Tight but loose.
Next issue: A review of their new album, Homegrown
