Scotsman's Welcome To The Monkey House review
Scotsman.com
Welcome To The Monkey House
by -
May 16, 2003

There is something that just doesn’t sit right about the Dandy Warhols. It’s probably the glaring discrepancy between their look and their sound. This motley US quartet have the air of a gang of elegantly wasted reprobates who have just stepped out of the opium den/fetish club/private orgy into the unwelcome glare of daylight but the sound of a relatively unambitious college rock band.

Singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor looks like trouble. Would it be wrong to paint him as an utterly dissolute rock star rake? Not with those razor cheekbones and that disdainful look, darling. Meanwhile, Stetson-wearing keyboard player Zia McCabe has become notorious for onstage nudity - in truth, she took her top off a couple of times and now it’s the stuff of sweaty-palmed legend. And the other two - well, the other two probably do naughty stuff, too. Best not to ask.

But their sound is fairly mundane - the sort of retro melodic garage that could be pulled off by any competent British indie band (and that includes the singing in an American accent) then played to death in shops, on Radio 1, over selected sporting coverage and used in adverts. Now that’s an idea ...

If you think you haven’t heard them, you’re wrong - their best known song, Bohemian Like You, was requisitioned for use in a mobile phone ad, while the chunky, cheery, Get Off, a track which could easily be mistaken for the Las or any other groovy beat combo from the north of England, was played to death on the soundtrack to Teachers, the Channel 4 "comedy drama", which is more successful as an extended indie music product placement advert and has become the ultimate seal of approval for any mid-league guitar janglers.

Now would be the time for the Dandy Warhols to step it up a notch, pull away from the pack. With Welcome To The Monkey House they have at least tried to do something different but the results are somewhat underwhelming.

Their Brit links find expression on this new album in the shape of its producer - Duran Duran’s keyboard player Nick Rhodes, he of the everchanging hair colour and immaculately applied blusher. This has led some to assume erroneously that the album will sound like Duran Duran. Actually, it sounds like a clean, modern pop record, enjoyable but not durable.

After the characterless one-minute-long opening title track (background studio noise, lone guitar, first taste of Taylor’s catatonic vocal), the band settle into a couple of the album’s best songs. We Used To Be Friends borrows its vocal hook from Rainbow’s Since You’ve Been Gone, which is never a bad thing and at least ensures catchy singalong credentials to compensate for the standard grungy guitar arrangement. Taylor tries out his falsetto for the first time and it’s a little strained, but he gets it right on Plan A, when his voice evokes a far more unearthly quality.

It is permissible to fall asleep for the next three tracks, although I Am A Scientist has a certain stealthy robopop appeal. I Am Over It is just monotonous though. And, while we’re on their "I Am" trilogy, I Am Sound, which is programmed later in the album, is reminiscent of a cute little mid-80s indie schmindie pop song (think China Crisis, or the Pale Fountains) and, like the rest of the album, agreeably simple and uncluttered.

The Dandy Warhols’ Love Almost Everyone, rocks some more falsetto action and is a smart slice of synth-soaked quirky beat pop. You Were The Last High relies on a space-age synth interlude to lift it beyond the ordinary and Heavenly has a soaring chorus to see it through. They all scrape a pass but collectively they don’t add up to the bold album that was predicted.

If there is one consistent weakness to Monkey House, it is the Warhols’ tendency to settle for insidious repetition rather than developing each song and, unlike their namesake, they fail to compensate for the repetition of ideas with enough splashes of vibrant colour.