The Dandy Warhols – Earth to the Dandy Warhols

• 12th Aug 2008

So another Dandy Warhols referenced album title, but are they indeed off this planet? – or do they have both feet fixed firmly on the ground? With such a broad range to their style it is sometimes hard to tell if they are off their trollies or indeed deeply in touch with the conventions of the music around them and have their own ideas deeply imbedded in something much deeper.

The first couple of songs would suggest this is going to be the Dandy Warhols gone all Electro on us. Is that what we need? The Dandys as dance funk band? Well to be honest if anything it just shows how wide this band is capable of reaching. If Duran Duran can do it with their ‘Red Carpet Massacre’ album then why not the Dandy’s too. It certainly doesn’t sound bad. ‘Mission Control’ is probably destined to be a Dandy’s instant classic. But then track 3 ‘Welcome to the Third World’ hits and it sounds even more like 80’s punk pop (and I hate to say it… but yeah they sound like Duran Duran!). A smile creeps across the face.

This is swiftly followed by the sheer racket of ‘Wasp In the Lotus’ and is undoubtedly the Dandy Warhols. Yes it’s another album mixed up of all those favourite words journalists like to refer to bands like this as: Diverse and Versatile being at the top of the list. Well sometimes some bands just are that.

So maybe they have left the planet after all. But what is comforting about this piece is that it feels like an album should. Despite the differences in tones, it still has a flow to it that suggets that this is a collective work that works well because of the songs placed together as opposed to just being a bunch of songs they wrote and threw together. This is important for a band that has delivered so many albums before; that their work has some continuity to it and does not ever appear to be lazy.

This continues for the length of 13 tracks – The Dandys finish with their talent and integrity intact. Earth to the Dandy Warhols – Keep them coming!