REVIEW: Dandelion, Dyslexicon (Ruffhouse/Columbia)
- Jeremy Ashcroft
There's no doubt that the easiest reviews to write are those of albums you either really love or those you really hate... it's so natural to want to hype your favorites or slag off anything that you regard as a waste of vinyl, but the problem comes when your opinions aren't so extreme in either direction. Or worse, when you really like some of the songs and yet the others leave you disappointed. That's been my problem with this album.
A quick and dirty one line review might say something like "Smashing Pumpkins with Kurt Cobain on vocals" and I don't think that's an unfair comment - and in fact, if like me you'd like the Pumpkins more without the Corgan's whiney vocals, perhaps that's not a bad recommendation either. It's just that I much prefer it when Dandelion are less like anyone else and a lot more like themselves. I don't think that they're copying from these other bands, but the singer just happens to sing like Kurt and the riffs sometimes go off into Pumpkins territory. But on to the songs themselves...
The opener, "Pass the Stone", reminded me of a heavy metal Monkees - in fact I can almost imagine them singing "hey hey we're Dandelion" to the tune. The following track, "Weird Out", is the first single from the album, though the quiet verse/heavy chorus is perhaps too Nirvana-like to make the band stand out from the crowd.
Next up, "Trailer Park Girl". I'm sorry, but it has echoes of that band again, but at least it gives us the first taste of what I really like about the band... towards the end of the song there's a great overdriven wah-wah guitar solo that just kind of goes off on it's own for a while.
Again, for a different mood, before the next track there's a brief flute-led instrumental that would sound just perfect as a soundtrack to some hazy 60s movie - there's even some coughing in the background!
"What A Drag", as befits the title, tries to conjure up the singer's bored mood with the same kind of simple repetition as The Stooges "No Fun" but, as with that classic, it's not quite as simple as it first appears - there's actually quite a groove to it. There's a reprise of the previous instrumental within the song and more wah-wah guitar. I cannot say no to such cool wah-wah guitar. A great track.
"Supercool" evokes The Smashing Pumpkins, but the dual vocals make the song more distinctive. We're treated to another great overdriven guitar solo in this one and the song concludes with some atmospheric samples of a child's voice and haunting laughs - a production device that works.
"Retard" changes the mood totally and sees the band abandoning any subtlety for punk. "False Alarm" shares the same frantic pace. Good fun in concert perhaps, but not that interesting on record.
Just to briefly run through the other tracks: "Tapped" - almost heavy metal with slightly Eastern-sounding vocals; "Whatever" - another throwaway punk song; "Snow Job" - starts as too-Nirvana but takes off into an exciting tom-tom-led freeform instrumental workout towards the end; "Viva Kneval" brings to mind Hendrix at his most frantic, though later brings back the mellower flute for another 60s-flashback. Finally "Melon From Heaven" closes the album, sounding not unlike Smashing Pumpkins again.
With U2's "Hold Me,Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" being practically a cut and paste job of Bowie and Bolan, and Elastica's album a chance to spot-the-riff new-wave-style, perhaps there's nothing wrong with sounding like other bands these days, but all I'd say is that Dandelion's finest moments are when they take off and do their own thing. Usually records are better for having such "over-indulgences" stripped from the songs... if I were to produce a Dandelion album, however, this is what I'd encourage them to pursue.
In conclusion: This is their second album. The Smashing Pumpkin and Nirvana comparisons aside, there's some great moments on Dyslexicon. I'll certainly continue to look out for these guys in the future.
