The Dodos have all the ingredients for an overrated band. They began as a guitar-and-drums duo – there are precious few acts in that hyped set-up these days that aren’t overrated – before adding a new member playing a quirky instrument, the vibraphone, in 2009. They’re from San Francisco, so automatically are thought to be ‘artistic’ and ‘different’ (the gay-friendliest city is NYC – survey just proved it!). They do such ‘unorthodox’ things as focus on the drums, not the guitar, use a trash can for percussion, and singer/guitarist Meric Long even plays seated! It was all very ripe for blog-love, and the band certainly received it.
Yet here’s the thing: The Dodos are actually good, and No Color is their best yet.
On their 2009 Frenchkiss debut, Time To Die (QRO review), The Dodos stripped down from their prior sounds, yet still managed to standout in the crowded stripped alt-folk scene, thanks to the pressing drum rhythm of Logan Foeber. On No Color, the group doesn’t reinvent The Dodos wheel, but rather carefully adds more without disrupting what they’ve already accomplished. Not that they necessarily need to – opener “Black Night” is the active and frenetic Dodos that the band does so well, and remains a standout on No Color.
But one reason that it’s a standout is because of what The Dodos do on the other eight tracks (with almost all songs over four minutes, and two over six, The Dodos were wise to keep No Color to a relatively low nine songs total). The higher, more melodica, and even slightly ‘up-with-life’ air to “Going Under” and “Sleep” is perhaps the best addition, but also doing very well is higher yet distant, loss-haunted nature to “When Will You Go” and “Companions”. Conversely, the guitar-distort moments of “Good” and closer “Don’t Stop” feel out of place – they belong with all those other, actually overrated garage guitar-and-drums duos – and “Hunting Season” can’t quite decide if it’s a lighter, distorted, or ‘regular’ pressing Dodos piece.
The Dodos are still a bit of an acquired taste, but it’s a taste that’s becoming easier and easier to acquire. No Color even balances smartly between what the band already does well and growing into the new. If all you knew about The Dodos was the hype, you could be forgiven for disliking them, note unheard, but a few spins will easily win you over.
MP3 Stream: “Sleep”
