The Dandy Warhols Issue #37

Earth To the Dandy Warhols (Beat the World)

By Erin Wolf
Published: September 1st, 2008 | 12:02am

The Dandy Warhols have a knack for creating a sense of guilty pleasure. Able to write irritatingly catchy melodies paired with oddball lyrics delving into drugs, dancing, and general debauchery, it’s easy to poo-poo the Dandies. But mid-disdainful hand wave, most listeners get sidetracked into turning that hand-frown upside down.

Truth be told, a great number of the Dandy Warhols songs are crap, but the ones that aren’t crap are pure genius, sparkling and effervescent. The Dandy Warhols’ latest, Earth To the Dandy Warhols, is enjoyable in its stability and a good start to their new label, Beat the World. There are the occasional clunkers, but the songs are fluid in this otherworldly concept album.

Opening track “The World the People Come Together (Come On)” is a cool, fuzzed-out dance-dirge that features Courtney Taylor —Taylor deeming “You give what you get,” with a cosmic cacophony built from symphonic chimes and layered choral shouts. The space-y concept continues with the vocoder thrown into the mix for the next track, “Mission Control,” and becomes even more glam-ed up in “Welcome to the Third World” with macho croons of flirtations with girls whose lipstick “sure do match my wallet.”

Traditional Dandies pop magic comes back with “Now You Love Me,” answering that call back to earth. Unfortunately, they botch the landing with the last track “Musee D’ Nougat.”

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