About a year ago I had the unfortunate luck to have my main musical proprietor (namely, my boyfriend at the time) perpetually give me the first half of albums. What can you expect when you trust AIM file share program to work when your computer is asleep. Moving along, I tell you this to explain why this review is for only slightly more than half of The Dodo's "Beware of The Maniacs". In fact, it only occurred to me this morning that I was listening to half the album, all that has made it onto my iPod. But in the interest of time, let's just call this an indie EP for the shy and move on with in.
Just as with any work put out by The Dodo's, the melancholy lyrics are hidden by the perky Appalachian steel guitar. In combination with the trashcan drums and single octave keyboard this album (or rather "EP", excuse me) delivers a self righteous journey through a young man life and everything that hurt him there. The use of 30 second intros that don't match the rather static instrumentals that follow serve to keep you guessing through the album (as far as memorizing order is concerned) and highlight the melodic vocals of bashful singer Meric Long. Somewhere between San Francisco's fog and pavement The Dodo's found bluegrass and humidity to call home and launched a successful career as faux-folk music. Faux only in the sense of displacement from their musical roots and the fact that they list "vibraphone" as one of their instruments.
My personal favorite is the terrorist inspired lyrics of the "Horney Hippies":
We were walking down the block when we thought the bomb went off and our hearts nearly stopped at the sound/ When we look and we found that it some other crowd I was glad it wasn't us, yeah, I was proud.
Perhaps it's just my 8th grade sentiment for The Postal Service's "We Will Become Silhouettes", but there's nothing more love inducing than surviving nuclear warfare. The song goes on to describe the disaster that is the institute of marriage and encourage anyone with a thread of decency and self respect to "stay in your home".
So what did I learn from this album: Boys and girls are different and girls will inevitably break your heart. And that I should beware of the maniacs.
Hear Horney Hippies here:
04 Horny Hippies by user8259628
