The Dandy Warhols - Distortland (Dine Alone Records)

The Dandy Warhols – Distortland (Dine Alone Records)

When certain music fans get a little precious about their favourite bands allowing their music to be used on advertisements, it can be somewhat short-sighted, to say the least.  The Dandy Warhols’ ‘Bohemian Like You’ was used in a 2001 mobile phone advert and propelled the track to number 5 in the charts, which no doubt bankrolled the band through the leaner (in terms of hits, anyway) times to come.

Distortland is their ninth studio album and sixth since ‘the advert’ and rather unpromisingly arrived amidst information detailing how it was recorded in front man Courtney Taylor-Taylor’s basement on a 1980s tape recorder.  Fear not though, as it was finished off in the studio by the rest of the band with the help of producer Jim Lowe, who possibly didn’t have to translate sounds from a rough cassette when working with his other clients Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.

Although some of the album has a slightly lo-fi, demo-like quality to it, it is a succinct and effective pop album containing some of the band’s most focussed work in a long time. Sonically, the cassette-to-studio process works well and suits the songs nicely, not least on recent single ‘STYGGO’, an acronym for ‘Some Things You Gotta Get Over’ (which is actually the last lyric in the song). An insistently simple Peter Holmström guitar hook combines with disco-tactic drums from Brent DeBoer and ghostly synth touches from Zia McCabe. It may not be an obvious single on first listen, but persevere and it is the standout track on the whole record.

Elsewhere, opener ‘Search Party’ benefits from another quality McCabe keyboard riff and some shoegazey vocals from Taylor-Taylor and harks back to the direction of their early work.  ‘Semper Fidelis’ is the most atmospheric track on the album and is another grower, with McCabe again sprinkling magic with a deceptively simple one chord synth riff that does everything it needs to with minimum fuss.

‘Pope Reverend Jim’ is a more upbeat affair in the vein of underrated and lovably disheveled former single ‘Smoke It’, with the band’s innate playfulness coming to the surface.

First single ‘You Are Killing Me’ is commercial enough, but probably the least Dandys-like track here; however new 45 (or whatever speed it is that streams play at) ‘Catcher In The Rye’ is a lovely track and one that would have easily landed them in the Top 40 a few years back.

Taylor-Taylor claims that Distortland is ‘organised like a pop record but still has sonic garbage in there’, and despite the very last line on the album being ‘I’ve got to admit it / I’m too old for this shit’, The Dandy Warhols are sounding energised and certainly not ready to throw the towel or indeed 1980s cassette player in yet.

God is in the TV is an online music and culture fanzine founded in Cardiff by the editor Bill Cummings in 2003. GIITTV Bill has developed the site with the aid of a team of sub-editors and writers from across Britain, covering a wide range of music from unsigned and independent artists to major releases.