Album Review: Dum Dum Girls- Too True

(album cover is a little "dat ass," am i right?)

2012 was certainly a different time. It was kind of so long ago now that I don’t even really remember why I liked “Lord Knows” by the Dum Dum Girls SO much—but I did. I liked it enough to rank it my third favorite song of the year.

And I made this judgment in passing, pretty much—I don’t think I ever even listened to the End of Daze EP in its entirety. I just really liked that song. And I mean, it’s not like I went back and revisited it a ton in 2013—but that doesn’t mean I like it any less now. I’m listening to it right now. And it is still pretty dope.

So it was with a mix of interest and hesitation that I started listening to the new full length from the Dum Dum Girls—Too True. The interest came in the form of, “Oh they made that one song I liked!” And then the hesitation came in the form of the first song—“Cult of Love,” a somewhat bland 80s sounding, gloomy, synthy, post-punk track that was just really unmoving and uninteresting.

Too True, the band’s third full length, takes a minute to warm up—it arrives by track four, in the form of “Are You Okay?” It’s a song that gives of some strong Chrissie Hynde/Pretenders vibes, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that—and that vibe that is carried over into the next track—a shimmery slice of dreamy pop music, “Too True to Be Good.”

It’s not really a “problem,” but an issue that lingers throughout the very brief running time of Too True, as well as through the entire Dum Dum Girls back catalog is the inability to stick with one sound. Here, there’s an emphasis on a very crisp, New Wave vibe, as well as a bit of danceable synth pop. But then there are little traces of hazy shoegaze—and that’s something that has followed the band on almost every release in their six-year history.

I use the term “band” loosely, I guess—at the core of the Dum Dum Girls is one woman—Kristin Welchez, who performs under the moniker “Dee Dee Penny,” with a somewhat regularly revolving cast of backing players.  Her earliest material carried a bit of a Best Coast-esq feeling to it: heavy on the reverb, even heavier on the “girl group” and “garage rock” tags that were so big around 2009 and 2010.

Much of the reverb and unpolished aesthetic has been stripped away, and by 2011’s Only in Dreams, the band’s sound started to shift in a different direction, but has never really stopped shifting; one could take that as a slight lack of focus. And I think that’s kind of the thing that’s keeping Too True from being as successful as it could be. Out of the ten songs, there are four that are really great, one that’s pretty catchy, and then another five that are kind of “eh.”

Dum Dum Girls- "Are You Okay?"

The “eh” tracks aren’t bad per se, but they are clunkers in comparison to what works: the aforementioned “Are You Okay?,” and “Too True to Be Good,” and then the two songs that close the record—“Under These Hands,” which actually rides a bit of the same momentum that made “Lord Knows” so great, and “Trouble is My Name,” a very hazy, Mazzy Star-ish slow jam to wrap things up with.

After the halfway point, “In The Wake of You” begins rather generically with a programmed drumbeat and simple chord progression, but by the time the refrain rolls around, the song suddenly grows and you can see it working.

Everything else on Too True is listenable, sure. But it’s also unfortunately a little forgettable. The New Wave aesthetic can’t carry the songs, and the reason the other songs mentioned by name do work is because they scale back on that sound, replacing it with something slightly more palatable to the ears.

Sadly, there is nothing really as powerful as “Lord Knows” from this set of songs—nothing that really jumps out and demands your full attention the way that song did (for me anyway.) It, like many records I listen to, simply exists. It begins and ends, and in between those two points music happens. Sometimes the music is great. Sometimes it leaves a little to be desired. The take away from a record like Too True is that Welchez is a great songwriter—she’s great with structure and even better with hooks. But since the record is so scattered stylistically, it can make for a bit of a frustrating and uneven listen.

Too True is out tomorrow via Sub Pop Records.