"Lost Boys and Girls Club", the first cut from the forthcoming Dum Dum Girls LP Too True was a cauldron churning effort. Drums lumbered and synthesizers muted the band's color palette to a hazy grey, making Dee Dee Penny's lingering voice darker in the process. The only common identifier it had with past works was its runtime, still clocking in at less than 4 minutes.
"Rimbaud Eyes", the newest release from their 3rd full-length similarly tips its cap to the bands' breakneck pace, while simultaneously moving into uncharted territory. The band previously paid tribute to French-poet Arthur Rimbaud with the galloping "Season in Hell", but that jangling slice of garage pop fit in comfortably with the work of peers like Best Coast. "Rimbaud Eyes" on the other hand dives headlong into an 80s abyss, imagining a white wedding of the Bangles and Disintegration-era Cure. Here the drums are in an unshakable lockstep and the bass is back to its chugging pace. Jules' guitar work contorts like the Stone Roses' John Squire caught in a never-ending game of Twister. And then there's Dee Dee, voice trapped in a far-off cavern; crying "every morning's atrocious" and hiding from the dawning Sun. When surrounded by such self-assured performances, her crippled vocal turn registers as "weak". But as the titular poet of the tune once asked, "what soul is without its flaws?"
Too True drops January 28 through Sub-Pop.
Dee Dee Penny's Dum Dum Girls
project began in earnest, staking a claim on lo-fi pop songs unable
to keep up their breakneck pace for longer than three minutes. In the early
stages, Penny's voice cut through the static like a dull knife; too soft to
stake its own claim but far too sharp to embrace. As the song lengths reached
for more ambitious
heights, her voice settled into melancholic croon,
channeling the spirit of the girl-pop past she often idealized. This settling
in after such a momentous early pace made perfect sense. The growing pains that
were the subject of so many songs were essentially avoided.
New single "Lost Boys and
Girls Club" attempts to find harmony between these disparate strains.
Every one of Penny's lines leisurely spills forth, frequently bleeding into one
another until a beginning and end is impossible to pinpoint. Guitars don't chug
along (as they used to), but slowly churn in a dark cauldron. The drum part
never rights itself from a lumbering pace. Swipes of synthesizer (a newcomer to
the band's insular world) color the track a hazy grey, making Penny's forlorn
state a few shades darker in the process. All of this hints at a broodier Dum
Dum Girls, lingering like never before. Almost as a callback to that bracing
past, "Lost Boys and Girls Club" ends after a scant two minutes. Some
things never change.
The band's third LP Too True is
out January 29 through Sub-Pop.
