The best country album in the Dandys ... ever (Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia - Dandy Warhols)

Member Name: hulahoop

Product:	Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia - Dandy Warhols
Date:	05/10/00 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good

Disadvantages: slightly similar to come down

Most people listening to the Dandy Warhols probably would have heard 'Come Down'. Therefore, this is likely to turn into a comparison study. A lot of the songs are at least vaguely reminiscent of 'Come Down'.

'Thirteen Tales...' begins with an acoustic guitar wall of sound, characteristic of the Dandy Warhols, and their habits of using the same chords throughout a song, and similarly through the album. However, 'Godless', the first track, is very strong, with Courtney's relatively quiet voice and a catchy melody. At some points a trumpet takes over, reminding me of background music in Mc Donalds! Yet it is bold enough to be effective. 'Godless' transmogrifies into a particularly alive song, 'Mohammed', whose layered up sound creates a fantastic ambience and acts as a kind of mix and a foreteller of the tracks to come on the album. There are definite signs of 'Come Down' in this, but that can also be explained as the Dandy's ise of simple melodies and chord progressions. There is more experimentation on this album, for example the layered harmonies in 'nietzsche' are quite different, and the general depth of the songs provides ambivalence within each track, which I enjoy. It is easy to be captivated and drawn in by these up-beat low-down songs, and it feels as if the Dandys have grown up a little in producing them. They are generally a very charismatic bunch when you see them live, revelling in the attention that they receive, but none of this comes across in their recorded music. Humorous points on the album include the slide guitar country bumpkin track 'Country Leaver'. As Courtney takes on the persona of an American travelling country-boy we are reminded of the 'Thirteen Tales' part of the title. I remember thinking it quite odd that they used 'bohemia' in the title because the only people I knew who listened to the Dandys were the retro-mod indie types. Seein
g them live I can see that they enjoy their American background, and particularly want to be seen as bohemian, or at least different. Brent DeBoer who provides drums and those 'bah bah bah' backing vocals ha the best Afro I think I have ever seen on a white man.

Anyway, back to the music. 'Get off' has a countryesque feel that is also pretty compatible with songs like 'Not if you were the last junky on earth' and 'Everyday should be a holiday'. Having said that none of the tracks are particularly similar in pop-stylee to those tracks, and at the same time none are equal to the mellowness of 'Come Down'. 'Sleep' could be mistaken for their earlier stuff with finger-picky guitar riffs and slow vocals, but even that has a lot more of a beat and a heavier guitar presence. Don't listen to this in the morning - the lyrics 'if I could sleep forever' and the slidy reverb guitar is just a little too relaxing and tempting to help anyone stay awake. The only real reminder of 'Come Down's characteristic organ comes in 'Bohemian Like You' where it is drowned out by synthesisers and elecric guitars.

'Thirteen Tales...' is much heavier than 'Come Down', but features similar characteristics. Again alot of the songs sound pretty similar to each other, but there are distinguishable country styles in some songs which make the album quite different from previous stuff. It's definitely worth buying to have a listen to. I fell less like a forteen year old listening to it, but that maybe just my school-girl paranoia coming from my last years at school. I'll go and see my psychiatrist.

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