The Dandy Warhols, who have penned power-pop anthems like “Bohemian Like You” are back, though they’ve taken a decidedly darker turn.
The Portland-based band is set to release This Machine, an album frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor said is their darkest work to date.
“I’m a person who is depressed by nature,” Taylor-Taylor said. “I think the world is a really fucked up, sick and frightening place.”
He said his lyrics are typically dark by nature and This Machine is no exception. The album touches on everything from heartbreak to life in outer space.
The Dandy Warhols haven’t always sounded so deliciously sinister. Over the past 18 years, the alternative rock band’s previous albums have shifted from garage to psychedelic, power pop, and synth.
Taylor-Taylor said he’s embraced the gothic turn the album took.
Though the haunting and seductive “Sad Vacation” opens the album, Taylor-Taylor said “Autumn Carnival” is the darkest. Heavy drums, moody bass lines, and jarring guitar riffs all blur over the familiar hypnotizing murmur of Taylor-Taylor’s description of glowing jack-o-lanterns, carousel and the huge shadows of the Ferris wheel.
The spooky backing vocals egg him on, as he taunts the visitors of the carnival, “There is no compass/ There is no guide/ And there is no mask to hide behind.”
The goth sound This Machine flaunts is very guitar centric, Taylor-Taylor said. The heavy rock track, “Alternative Power to the People,” begs listeners to mosh, start a riot, overthrow your government, or do all three, without using any lyrics.
“The record is about what we do live, and live we are definitely a guitar band,” Taylor-Taylor said.
The minimalist, eerie Gorillaz-esque “Well They’re Gone” and the upbeat rock “I Am Free” share the same clean, stripped down sound with the rest of the album.
“We didn’t want to layer up instruments and thicken the sound,” Taylor-Taylor said.
The Dandy Warhols rose to prominence in the late ‘90s. Over the years, the band members have pursued music in new ways.
Drummer Brent DeBoer and keyboardist Zia McCabe play in their their respective country bands while guitarist Peter Holmström fronts a neo-psychedelic project.However, none of those sounds have slipped into This Machine.
“We got that shit out of our systems on our other bands,” Taylor-Taylor said.
Fans won’t be disappointed by This Machine, but Taylor-Taylor warns it might not be what everyone is used to.
“We can’t make the same record again . . . even if we tried. We’re just not that in control of what we do,” he said. “We are at the mercy of our instruments, ourselves.”
