Never one to miss an opportunity, the Dandys are releasing the lead-in single to album number five barely a month after DiG!, the Courtney-narrated documentary they shared with The Brian Jonestown Massacre, finally appeared in cinemas. It’s hard not to be endeared to them though; their careerism is so shameless you find yourself willing them to succeed, the photo montages that have graced the liner of each of their albums making you feel like part of the gang. They know this. That’s why they do it.
It will be reassuring to some to find that they’ve veered away from their foray into fashionable eighties pop and reverted to their country-slouch rock roots, albeit with some Dylan-esque stream of consciousness chaos thrown in. It works pretty well; when you hear Courtney giving a shout out to the "brother’s mother’s sister’s brothers and other mothers" or telling you _"people got more baggage than JFK – and I’m talkin’ about the airport, man,"_ it’s like welcoming back an old friend. The message is still get loaded and to hell with the rest, yet again it’s all done over four-bar guitars and a dead simple organ riff but with their ‘tude and their charm it never sounds old hat or dull. In a month or so quite a few beered up students may well agree.
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7John Winters's Score