THE Dandy Warhols new album Distortland is one of the band's best
efforts in years and makes me realise how much I actually love their trippy, hippy ironic rock n roll.
Albums such as 13 Tales From Urban Bohemia which certainly brought
them a whole new audience as it contained Bohemian Like You,
the Nick Rhodes production Welcome To The Monkey House and
This Machine are certainly highlights on the band's impressive
CV and now it's time to turn the page onto the latest chapter.
Distortland is album number nine from Courtney Taylor – Taylor and co but the
Warhols sound like a rejuvenated and creatively hungry band making a debut record. There is a powerful energy that oozes from pretty much every song and from the opening messed up 60's chords of Search Party and its Stone Roses' vocals, the groovy train ride begins,
you're strapped in and there is no inclination to disembark.
By the time track two, Semper Fidelis kicks in with its nasty hypnosis you'll already be addicted.
There is also a distinctly 'immediate' feel about the material on this
album. While the band have fully maintained their charismatic
characteristics such as unpredictability, quirkiness and originality,
they seem to have decided to throw a bunch of beautifully direct choruses in for good measure, making Distortland a highly
infectious record that will not just preach to the converted.
Catcher In The Rye is a perfect sing a long example of the Dandy's
ability to write a hook that is both commercial and cool and other
tracks such as the sublime Styggo and the delectable wall of
sugar sound that is Doves also grab you in a tight headlock.
My initial favourite song on the record though is All The Girls In
London which sounds like the illicit love child of Iggy Pop and
The Banana Splits. Close second though is the vintage rock of Pope
Reverend Jim which seems to be laced with the spliced DNA of The
Ramones and the Rockerfeller Skank.
Distortland is a thrilling and fun record that deserves mass consumption –
failing that I'm quite happy for it to be my own personal album that
no-one else is allowed to listen to. This is the kind of record that makes you possessive.
The title is a wordplay on the band's home city of Portland, Oregon and
the cover photography shows the place where that rich Dandy sound was born.
Roll on the tour which thankfully includes a show at Belfast's Limelight 2
on May 27.