The Dodos: Visiter

Well a lot of people seemed to like this one. It'll probably appear on Pitchforkmedia's best albums of the year list, and maybe a couple others. I guess I get it. These guys manage to deliver a lot of strong and distinct tunes with just one guitar and drums. There are a some guest musicians, but for the most part it's just guitar and drums on this album. But then again, I also get why a friend of mine said he didn't "get it". Visiter could either be a sign of great things to come from these guys, or an interesting and enjoyable first album that will fade as time goes by.

....

So that paragraph was written yesterday, and then I tried to write a 2nd one and couldn't really come up with anything. And this is after deleting an already begun review of this album. I don't know why, but I'm having a hard time thinking of what to say about this album. I like it. I have listened to it a fair amount, and I always enjoy it. The first song "Walking" is a nice little introduction to "Red and Purple" which I like alright, but doesn't quite live up to the promise of it's opening. But then things start to get interesting. "Fools" is an enjoyable frantic song. And "Joe's Waltz" pretty much shows off all of The Dodos' strengths. It opens with a pretty nice haunting melody before taking off, being constantly driven by a bluesy riff and a refrain of "You need help!"

And that's not even halfway through the album. Some of the songs are kind of forgettable. I don't really remember what "Winter" or "God" sounds like. And I remember "It's That Time Again" only because it's pretty short and easy to remember (half of the words are in the title). But there are enough good songs on here that I have trouble picking any solid favorite. "Jodi", "Paint the Rust" and "The Season" are all candidates along with "Joe's Waltz".

But I'm still not sure how I feel about the album as a whole. It's a bit too long given the lack of anything to tie the tracks together. It's about an hour long, and it goes by pretty quickly, but it feels like a bit much for a debut album. But I guess they've probably been playing and writing songs for a while now and decided to put as many out there as they were able to. This is just my speculation...

I'm seeing The Dodos this Tuesday, so I'll probably have a better idea then if the success of this album is a fluke or a sign of great things to come. Still not sure, but after this album, I'm definitely open for more.