Dum Dum Girls return with a superlative new EP, “End of Daze” which contains a collection of songs that any right thinking society would quite correctly revere as bona fide pop classics. Once again, Dum Dum Girls almost thaumaturgical gift for melody allied to their elegiac lyrical dexterity sees them distilling a wide variety of musical influences to produce an EP, which is quite simply, flawless.
Full of poetic lyrical observations, classical allusions, and religious imagery replete with gorgeous melodies “End of Daze” provides indisputable evidence that Dee Dee Penny is one of the most profoundly gifted songwriters of her, or indeed any other, generation. Despite the girl gang look Dum Dum Girls are not merely jejune revivalists, instead Dee Dee takes her musical influences, which range from obscure “Girls In The Garage” compilations, The Ramones, The Mary Chain through to Joy Division, The Smiths and The Cure, and melds them into something new, something exciting and beautiful and in the process produces something unique and distinctly all her own.
‘Mine Tonight’ is a slow burning shoegazey torch song that builds to a glorious crescendo and is a pristine example of emotive, sweeping dreampop at it’s finest. ‘I Got Nothing’ has the sort of classic “Girls and the Garage” chorus that Spector would have (figuratively!) killed for whilst the only cover on the EP, Strawberry Switchblade’s ‘Trees And Flowers’ positively aches with melancholy. The magnificent ‘Lord Knows‘ which was unleashed ahead of the EP’s official release is in many ways a follow up to ‘Only In Dreams’ epic centre piece, ‘Coming Down’, a song that made many sit up and give Dum Dum Girls the attention their music undoubtedly deserves. If “Only in Dreams” was informed by bereavement “End of Daze,” whilst still dealing with grief, hints at some form of closure, of hope and of embracing a new dawn. ‘Season In Hell’ with its thundering New Order style bass and chiming guitars ala The Raveonettes meet The Cure, is the EP’s joyous conclusion and the line ‘ “Doesn’t the dawn look divine” perhaps best sums up this sense of renewal, of stepping out from the darkness into the light.
Pop music is often dismissed as an art form by the intelligentsia and a cursory glance at the spirit crushing mediocrity that dominates the charts, which is to good music what Brian Blessed is to whispering, would seem to confirm this view. However as we know, the bulk of chart music is an exercise in commerce not art, so when Dum Dum Girls mastermind Dee Dee relays the contents of her heart, with such raw poetic honesty, allied to such sweet, life affirming melodies, there really is no better form of artistic self expression. A quite wonderful EP from a band who have raised the bar yet again and are, in our opinion the best band in the fucking world right now.
******************************************
great.write up they really r fabulous.x
My best band too
a band to cherish