It was nice that Morrissey got them back together, but I didn't spend much time thinking about the subsequent reunion album, at least not until Robert Dellar told me I should give it a listen. The Dolls had seemed so chaotic and explosive first time around that I had trouble imagining how their second wind could bring forth anything I needed to hear, and those first two albums would surely prove a fucking tough act to follow; and besides, the Dolls without Johnny Thunders struck me as an unrealistically optimistic proposition.
Nevertheless, Robert was right.
One Day features just two of the original line-up but is unmistakably a Dolls album sitting reasonably comfortable behind Too Much Too Soon. They sound inevitably older and wiser, and with a bit of an uptempo Springsteen lilt on a couple of numbers, but it's definitely the Dolls regardless of line-up variations; and it works because it refuses to simply impersonate how they once sounded, moving forward into the new century on its own terms. So while there's nothing quite so apocalyptic as Frankenstein or weird as Stranded in the Jungle, the wasted-glam boogie thing rocks as hard as ever with the soul and doo-wop elements still working their magic. One Day also brings in a country tinge I never noticed on previous recordings, but which makes perfect sense; as does the bizarre guest appearance of Michael Stipe for Dancing on the Lip of a Volcano.
That said, none of this would amount to quite so much were it not for David Johansen's unique lyrics and a voice which has retained every last drop of its original power; and I doubt anyone could mistake Dance Like a Monkey for anyone other than the Dolls. Honestly, it doesn't even sound like a reunion album so much as the work of a group who just happened to have stepped outside for twenty-eight years.
No comments:
Post a Comment