Philadelphia Weekly's Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia review (3 1/2 stars)
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Philadelphia Weekly
Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
by Ben Morgan
July 26, 2000
The Dandy Warhols' Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia is everything 1997's Come Down should have been: an exquisitely crafted rock masterpiece. Whereas Come Down suffered from frantic production (a result of the first version being rejected by Capitol), this one sounds freakin' huge - clearly the result of the band taking its sweet time during recording. The first three tracks mesh to form a trilogy of slow, darker numbers with serious names ("Godless," "Mohammed" and "Nietzsche"). They represent the best side of the band, meditating on mid-tempo themes, droning into climaxes highlighted by subtle horn lines. Instead of the traditional "let's save the seriously long jams for the end of the album so the hardcore fans will get the payoff" strategy, the Dandys blow their wad of credibility on the first three songs, then get down to their "we're here to sex you up, rock'n'roll-style, baby" shtick. The band dips into their first of a few alt-country numbers with "Country Leaver," a song that can be taken with or without irony (arguably with equally pleasing results). The pop hooks continue, with each song belonging to a slightly different slice of the glam rock pie - all good but not great - until the riff from the stones' "Gimmie Shelter" opens up the perfect pop number "Bohemian Like You." Thirteen Tales has it all - attitude, hooks, sonic forgery and craftsmanship, funny lyrics, and enough postmodern irony to make you gag. These guys just might save pop radio if you let them. And as they proved last week at the Upstage, their live show sounds as good as any British band with a fuzz pedal and a dream has ever aspired to.
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