Pop Go The Warhols

come on come on come on you... monkeys

Friend of Jaxvill without spark: 'There aren't many bands around doing good melodic rock these days'

Doesn't that sound silly? Yes. But it's true. There's The Strokes and Pete Yorn and then a steaming morass of The Calling-esque cyphers. The Dandies most recent album, 'Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia' was a shining example of how to do it. A hook here, a stomping riff there, it was distorted guitars played in melody that didn't make one want to vomit. No wonder it was so successful! Welcome To The Monkey House (WTTMH from now on) shed a lot of the guitars and relies more on Zia McCabe and her keyboards. Well, that and the strangely compelling falsetto crooning of Courtney Taylor-Taylor.

Happily, I have no idea what Duran Duran really sound like, so I can't say whether or not the rumours are true and WTTMH really resembles the 80s popsters. Nick Rhodes, former Duran Duran-er, produces the lion's share of the album but one would like to think it was more the Dandies seeking him out for synth expertise rather than him taking the helm of the Warhol ship.

The Dandy Warhols are a guilty pleasure. They don't really ever seem to be airing anything even remotely resembling socio-political opinion and their more pop than pop music cannot really be called challenging. If you have to look at it from a legitimate artistic perspective your best bet is the whole postmodern thing. As with all that postmodern guff though, one shouldn't look too close.

Like Thirteen Tales, WTTMH has it's magic moments and it's crap ones. Running-through-streets-naked single We Used To Be Friends is something of an unstoppable romp and the following song Plan A seems the logical conclusion to the new high-voiced pop rock direction. I Am Over It, The Dandy Warhols Love Almost Everyone and You Were The Last High are all highly recommended. Extremely FUN. Although You Were The Last High just scrapes through with its chorus,

You were the last high
ai ai ai
ai ai ai
ai ai ai

The lower points are probably the Bowie co-written I Am A Scientist (although the hook's a killer) and Hit Rock Bottom, towards the end of the album. They still have some of the Dandy magic, but just don't click like the better songs on the record.

Well, in any case, The Dandy Warhols will continue on their merry, shambolic way until Courtney Taylor-Taylor gets tired of the name and changes it to something else. The international success of the Dandy Warhols is a testament to their undoubted ability to write a good melody, aptly displayed on Welcome To The Monkey House, guitars or no guitars.