WAtoday's Why You So Crazy review
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Mojo
Why You So Crazy
by Bronwyn Thompson
2019
The Dandy Warhols - "Why You So Crazy" (Dine Alone) (rating: 3.5 of 4)
It's fitting that the Dandy Warhols' 10th album's art features the Fair-Haired Dumbbell building that cuts a striking figure on Portland's east side waterfront. Much like the controversial James Jean mural that encases it, the band's career has earned them as much love as derision, but they've stayed true to their bold statements. And much like that building's wild facade, there's a real sense of total creative freedom that underpins Why You So Crazy, and for the most part it works: there's the broody synth-psychedelia of Terraform, the free-wheelin', Southern-fried country of Highlife, and the spaced-out Bowie-tinged electronica of Thee Elegant Burn. The band have never shied away from their ambition, and 22 years since their breakthrough debut …The Dandy Warhols Come Down, they've moved far from straight-up tunes like Boys Better. That's not to say the band, led by Courtney Taylor-Taylor, has lost its pop sense (Motor City Steel and Be Alright possess great hooks), but here it turns its attention to production and strange, weird and wonderful sonics, often delivering strikingly minimal percussive slow-burners. Like Oregon's Fair-Haired Dumbbell, it's a whole lot to take in, but it'll grow on you.
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