Haunted Hearts - Initiation

Haunted Hearts
Initiation
27 May 2014
Zoo Music

2.5 stars out of 5

 

Haunted Hearts is the side project of Dee Dee Penny of Dum Dum Girls and her husband Brandon Welchez of Crocodiles. There’s not much in the sound or songwriting here to distinguish it from a regular Dum Dum Girls album: it’s got the same dark sexiness, the same glam goth swagger. Unfortunately, it hasn’t much else going for it.

The opener, “Initiate Me,” takes the beat from The Cure’s “Close to Me” and throws a Dum Dum Girls song over top. While in theory both of these things are good, the song is not the strongest example of songwriting—the song and the rest of the record come across as rejects from Too True, re-purposed for Haunted Hearts. “Love Incognito” and “Strange Intentions” would make catchy b-sides on some 7” somewhere, but here they feel like filler that’s being asked to step up its game and become the main attraction.

“You’ve been bad, but you’re the best I’ve ever had,” the couple sings on “Bring Me Down.” In terms of their music, this isn’t the best we’ve ever had from them. Not even close. Unnecessary even as a stop-gap (it’s only been four months since Too True first appeared on our record store shelves), Initiation is a quickly forgettable thirty-one minutes, recommended only for the die-hard and the curious.

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Dum Dum Girls - Too True

Dum Dum Girls
Too True
22 January 2014
Sub Pop

4 stars out of 5

 

Too True is Dum Dum Girls’ third LP, and its immediately accessible dream pop hooks and post-punk beats serve as a declaration from Dee Dee Penny & Co. that they’re ready and willing to conquer the world. Or, if not the world, then at least the indie cafés of its hipper parts of town and the living rooms of its university students. This record is overwhelmingly cool, excitingly sexy, and endlessly listenable.

The statement of intent that is the one-two punch of “Cult of Love” and “Evil Blooms” is undeniably good times. Heads will nod, feet will tap. This is clearly meant to be fun shit. Then comes “Rimbaud Eyes” and all hell breaks loose. If Deborah Harry and Siouxsie Sioux were somehow merged into one and joined The Sisters of Mercy as their new lead singer and songwriter, you’d get “Rimbaud Eyes.” And it would be the catchiest thing any of those artists ever wrote. “Are You Okay?” is a warm and delicately sincere love song that works. “In the Wake of You” wouldn’t feel out of place on a Belly record. Released as a promo single a few months before the album, “Lost Boys & Girls Club” oozes with the confident swagger of a songwriter who knows she’s brought her A-game to the field.

Penny doesn’t push too many boundaries on Too True; rather, she’s refining her craft, expanding her voice within the territory that she’s claimed as her own. So don’t expect newfound virtuosity or Kid A-esque explosions of the concept of songform, just expect to be entertained by one of the coolest bands since The Long Blondes. And since the album’s 31 minutes go by far too quickly, it’s not entirely unreasonable to be entertained twice per hour, every hour, until you need to turn off the lights and go to sleep.

reviewed by Richard Krueger