Album Review

The Dodos – Time To Die

• 30th Aug 2009

The Dodos are back with their third album “Time To Die”. Having made the first two albums, including the critically acclaimed “Visitor” as a duo, they felt this was the perfect time to expand. To that effect they became a trio, adding Keaton Snyder and his vibraphone to the percussion and drums of Loga and Meric. They also teamed up with Phil Ek, who has also produced albums with Fleet Foxes and The Shins, to help shape their new sound.

Those who have listened to “Visitor” will know that in the past The Dodos have produced some pretty frenetic folk music using irregular drum rhythms and frantic finger work on the guitar. To some extent “Time To Die” still contains these, with some fancy guitar playing opening “This Is A Business” and the drums dancing about on album opener “Small Deaths”.

However, the addition of the third member of the group has opened up new possibilities and some extra melody thanks to the vibraphone. It has certainly given more depth to the tracks and “made them sound more like a band” as they themselves admit.

But Snyder wasn’t the only addition to the mix, and Phil Ek seems to have had mixed results. This album is more polished, the rough charm of the last album is gone, and while the sound is more commercial (and very like Ek’s other projects) it also makes the album very ‘samey’. It isn’t a bad album by any means, but there is little motivation to have one more listen and not much to entice new fans.

Hopefully these are just teething problems due to the changes the group have been through since “Visitor” and they’ll be back better than ever next time round. In the mean time fans should be quietly happy with “Time To Die”, and the new tracks should flesh out their gigs a bit, after all we’d always rather listen to this music live!