Music Review: Dr. Dog - Shame, Shame

 

            At first, you’d swear you were listening to some forgotten classic rock album misplaced by your local DJ for over two decades. With each successive listen, though, you realize this is not just another fluke of a bygone era. Instead, you find yourself caught up in the modest brilliance of Dr. Dog, the quintet that united a mere 10 years ago in a smoky Philadelphia basement. 

            Their fourth studio album, and first with a new producer (Rob Schnapf of Beck and Eliot Smith notoriety), Shame, Shame is a booming blending of sinuous and peaceful violins and mandolins overlain with slanted, power guitar riffs and well-placed backup vocals. Seemingly unconcerned with what musical category they’re lumped with, Dr. Dog would rather compose and record music that moves them. Though mostly genre-less, there is a distinctive retro feel to this album. Prepare yourself for a trip back to a time when Bowie and Elton John were sporting outrageous unitards and when the live performance was king. Rather ironic, considering this set of 11 tracks (13 if you throw down for the deluxe edition) was recorded quietly and with much deliberation in New York’s sleepy Dreamland Studio. Songs vacillate between hauntingly beautiful folk ditties (“It” which appears on the deluxe version) to the cluttered psychedelic rock journey “Jackie Wants a Black Eye”. And that’s just the superb musicianship. Vocalist and rhythm guitarist, Scott McMicken consistently reduces the importance of individuality and coming clean down to a singular thread of imperative lyricism. On their college radio hit, “Shadow People”, he buzzes, “You could be twisted or you could be insane; pushing the envelope against the grain;” and again over the unsullied and multifarious orchestration of “Where’d All the Time Go?” when he dizzily croons, “There ain’t no way to sweep up the mess that we’ve made.”

            Recently, this disk entertained us on daytrip to Keene Valley, New York to climb at the Spider’s Web. Revealed was this: There isn’t a rotten apple in the bushel; in fact, this is one LP where I had to track back several times because the song was simply that good. It goes without saying, then, that Dr. Dog hits all the stops on this extraordinary meditation of self-worth and introspection, and it is well worth adding to your music library.