NEW ON CD
Warhols’ CD calls
for repeat listenings
"Welcome to the Monkey House"
The Dandy Warhols
CapitolThis Portland, Ore., band is big in Europe and Australia but is still trying to find an audience in their home country. The quartet's clever pastiche of pop and rock references (now spread over three albums for major label Capitol) may have finally coalesced on this new album, but it's a collection of songs you have to get comfortable with through successive listenings.
Front man Courtney Taylor-Taylor sings mostly in a raw, whispery voice, in keeping with an arch kind of music that insinuates rather than ingratiates. The lone exception is the substantial-sounding single/video "The Last High," co-written with ex-Lemonhead Evan Dando. With the band naming David Bowie as an influence, maybe it's not surprising that the song sounds suspiciously like his 1980 hit "Ashes to Ashes."
Other names from the past crop up throughout the album. Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes co-produced the bulk of the album with Taylor-Taylor, with former Bowie producer Tony Visconti helping out a very glam-sounding "Rock Bottom."
Another Duranite, Simon LeBon, helps out with vocals on the baroque if catchy "Plan A," and fellow '80s icon Nile Rodgers, of Chic, appears on "Scientist," an ironic electro pop ditty that implores that "we gotta live by science alone" -- like that's a solution!
Despite the occasionally detracting artiness of some of its songs, the album has its pleasurable moments: The skewed pop of "We Used to Be Friends" and "The Dandy Warhols Love Almost Everyone," and the self-referential "I Am Sound," stand out in particular.
Complete with a cover by "popagandist" artist Ron English, this new album by the Dandy Warhols is almost too smart for its own good.
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MP3 downloads
The most downloaded songs of the week, as listed by MP3.com:
Local
1. "Big Band" / drdrbob
2. "EMU" / next2nothing
3. "Hip Hop Jazz" / drdrbob
4. "Troy's Bucket" / Olivia
5. "Melelana" / Keali'i Reichel
6. "Hawaiian Rain" / Coconut Joe
7. "Funk Fest" / drdrbob
8. "Hip Hop in F Sharp" / drdrbob
9. "Blessings from Tragedy" / Olivia
10. "No One" / Nelson Leith
National
1. "Until the Day I Die" / Story of the Year
2. "Shake Your Tailfeather" / Nelly, P. Diddy and Murphy Lee (from "Bad Boys II")
3. "Heroes' Valor" / Midnight Syndicate
4. "And the Hero Will Drown" / Story of the Year
5. "Best of Me" / The Starting Line
6. "Ibiza Megamix 2003" / Antinomie
7. "Firefly (Edit)" / Electrostatic
8. "Descent into the Depths" / Midnight Syndicate
9. "Anthem of Our Dying Day" / Story of the Year
10. "Your Body Is a Wonderland (Live)" / John Mayer
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