Dr. Dog's Latest Effort Their Greatest
Indie-Jam favorites finally realize that a pop sensibility isn't all bad.
Dr. Dog
Shame, Shame
Released on Apr 06, 2010
Dr. Dog is one of those bands
that you hear really ridiculous things about across the entire
blogosphere.
Most astoundingly, about a year back I read, “Dr. Dog is your favorite
indie band’s indie band.” Low-key, moderately melancholic,
and obscenely rooted in their jam-band influences, Dr. Dog had always
put a few great songs on each album that impressed me, leaving the
majority
of their releases to stagnate somewhere in my subconscious alongside
every Meat Loaf album other than the Bat Out Of Hells (Yes, Meat Loaf released other albums).
Dr. Dog’s latest release,
thankfully, falls by the wayside of their unmovable ‘70s jam balladry.
I’ll even say this early on in the review that this album, Shame,
Shame, just isn’t something to be ashamed of (come on, if I didn’t
use it in the title of the review, it had to happen sometime).
This isn’t necessarily Dr.
Dog as you haven’t ever heard them before, rather, it’s a refined
Ph.D. altogether. Where previously sat rampant dives into rambling
Allman-esque guitar solo’ing with intermittent hooks and lyrical
nonsense,
now lives an album full of as much THC-induced lolling and peppy-ness
as ever, with a distinct nod at the pop. And this is a good thing.
As I’d said, Dr. Dog is a weirdly doleful band; one of those sounds that seems happy at all times, but is always highlighting a decay in whatever is being described - like on “Shadow People,” “The neon lights on Baltimore/every shadow’s getting famous/and in some backyard in some plastic chair/we’re hoping these cigarettes will save us/Here we go again.” This track in particular is testament to their newfound and successful pop vibe: where the song begins despondent and downcast, the feeling remains while musically the rhythm becomes danceable by the end and is even backed by a 3-part harmony and distorted guitars that somehow don’t feel intrusive.
A lot of this newfound success seems to lie in the studio, as Shame, Shame was taken care of in a much more focused way; it starts with the first rattling sounds of album opener, “Stranger” and lasts straight through the convergence of every instrument the band (and their guest players) know how to play on album closer, “Shame, Shame.”
Perhaps the highest and most buoyant point of the record occurs on the track, “Later.” The track gallops along at a pace that highlights some strange existential realization of a relationship going in two independent directions perfectly. It’s the rhythmic tuning of a band that highlights a high intellectual concept and vocals/lyrics that remain relevant and basic enough for anyone that make it not just relatable, but blatantly danceable, fun, and heartbreaking. In short, it’s a level of pop sensibility and maturity that this indie band should have been moving toward for a long time. Let’s hope tracks - and albums - like this are indicative of a band that has finally caught up to their critical acclaim.
High Point
The hyper-fun, angry, happy, and strange “Later” is immediately followed by, “I Only Wear Blue.” Two tracks that stay as true to Dr. Dog’s sound as ever yet are nothing short of inspirational, beautiful pieces of indie-pop.
Low Point
“Where’d All The Time Go” has a strange sort of DJ Shadow-ish looping cloud effect behind it that is just off-putting for this sort of band.
Posted by Mark Steffen on Apr 20, 2010 @ 7:00 am