CMJ's Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia review

CMJ New Music Report
Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
by Glen Sansone
June 19, 2000 - Issue 671

For better or worse, one of the biggest conundrums about Portland, Oregon's Dandy Warhols is the group's own reluctance to commit to being the kind of band it wants to be. It's that very paradox, however, that makes the band so engaging. With its stylistic variety, the quartet's third album, Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia, is more like four or five records in one. On the album's smooth, melodic opener, "Godless," the light psych-pop of "Mohammed" and the guitar squalls of the droning "Nietzsche," the band displays a much-improved knack for balancing melody, texture and shoegazer noise without being hindered by the combination. Just as the Dandys get rolling, "Country Leaver" sends you out to stomp along with the steel guitar on a hot, sun-baked porch. Then the hairpin turns just keep coming. "Horse Pills" sounds like it could have turned up on Beck's Mellow Gold; "Cool Scene" is a Donovan-ish '60s pop ditty and "Shakin'," with its vintage synthesizers and mechanical rhythms, hearkens back to early Cars material. Top it off with a dose of Americana and gospel ("Big Indian," and the aptly-titled "The Gospel," respectively) and you've got a garden of pop in which something grows for everyone.