| A little while back, I was able to listen to De Novo Dahl's latest EP "Shout," and
while I mostly enjoyed their tunes, some was just overly drug induced and a bit
nutty. I wanted to see what a difference an album makes and here we are with their
newest full-length, "Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound." I wonder what kind of
journey these guys will start on with this larger step in their musical careers.
In a nice twist of fate, De Novo Dahl has seen it fit to not include any roll over
tracks from their EP in this new album (which happens a lot when bands put an album
and an EP out near or around the same time as each other). This is all brand new
Dahl for you. Their music style (as Pernell mentioned in the previous review) is fairly
catchy, but it comes off awkward on more then a few occasions. I guess you can
expect a certain amount of "weird" for a band that named themselves after the Latin
word for "The New." I actually congratulate these guys (and girl) on their robustly
off-the-wall style of indie.
You can count on having a feverishly fun time adding up all the tracks that seem to
have harmony and melody shaken together. The double helixed vocals from Joel and
Serai are peculiar, in the way that Jack White from The White Stripes is. What is
refreshing is that De Novo Dahl can command several different styles under one
umbrella, such as "Shakedown" (sounds like Maroon 5) and "Be Your Man" (like The
White Stripes) and "Not To Escape" (like acoustic trippyness).
To me De Novo Dahl has a very wide range of available outlets for their music,
making for an interesting listen every time. A hydra with many heads is one way to
put it. But like their "Shout" EP, I couldn't help but look past the long list of
catchy hits and become a bit sour from the extremely quirky nature these guys put
forth. It some times leavs me not wanting to consistently pop "Move Every Muscle,
Make Every Sound" in my stereo. But that is mostly a personal opinion and this
record is very original and out of the ordinary listen.
~ Derek
March 22 2008 |
