After forming in 1994, The Dandy Warhols impressed so much that they were signed at their first gig. Though never quite hitting the heights that both they and their label thought they would, the band has stayed consistent and maintained a loyal following. Each album tends to lean heavy on different rock elements. Their debut, Dandys Rule Ok, combined elements of 60s garage rock and Britpop. …Dandy Warhols Come Down found the band utilizing more elements of psych rock and power pop. With 2016’s Distortland, the Dandys added a little more electronica to the mix. The release of Why You So Crazy is the band’s tenth album and also marks their 25th year together as a band. Whether intentional or not, Why You So Crazy seems to be a mix of all the elements from past albums.
“Fred N Ginger” starts the album with an old-timey intro that lasts less than a minute before launching into the psychedelic synth of “Terraform”. The dark synth sounds and effects pair perfectly with Courtney Taylor-Taylor’s slightly distorted vocals and is a strong start to the album. This is short-lived however, as it is followed by “Highlife”, which finds keyboardist Zia McCabe singing a synth pop meets country song that has the listener reaching for the skip button. The psych pop track “Be Alright” sounds like classic Dandy Warhols through and through and is unsurprisingly the first single to be released from the album accompanied by a single shot music video. Another stand out track, “Next Thing I Know” begins with a psychedelic synth melody that carries through the entirety of the track and is largely instrumental until halfway through when Taylor-Taylor’s vocals join the heavily intoxicating rhythms. These great tracks are sullied by more than just “Highlife” though. The satirical bro-country of “Motor City Steel” finds Taylor-Taylor singing about trucks and country in a joke of a song, except it isn’t funny. “Small Town Girls” is another lackluster track that channels 60’s surf rock and also just feels out of place. Luckily, the album ends strong with the track “Forever”, which is carried by a sort of gothic undertone with plucked strings featuring prominently over dark rumba style rhythms. The album closes with “Ondine”, a beautiful six-minute piano piece by McCabe that really showcases her talent as a pianist.
While there are some great tracks on Why You So Crazy, the album as a whole feels disconnected. The mix of so many different styles makes it seem as though this is almost an album full of B-sides and scrapped material from the past two decades. However, standout tracks like, “Terraform”, “Be Alright” and “Forever” are bound to make great additions to the band’s already stellar live shows and are destined to become fan favorites.
One Response
McCabe neither wrote nor performed “Ondine”. This is a major piano work by French Composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), and is one of the more towering and difficult pieces of classical piano repertoire. It takes of years of serious study to attempt to play this piece, let alone perform it well. The performance on the Dandy Warhols’ album is a passable one (on a purposely poor quality, one assumes, honky tonk-style instrument) given by pianist Hunter Noack. He is credited on allmusic.com, and a visit to his website confirms that this piece is in his repertoire. I’m a classical musician myself, and a *former* fan of the Warhols earlier albums–I used to find them edgy and hip but am sorry to say my recent discovery of their casually passing off a masterpiece by Ravel (not even performed by anyone in the band) as a track on this album has turned me off permanently. It’s too bad to see reviewers and fans fooled by it.