Dublin Duck Dispensary – Be Happy
As a personal susceptible to crippling melancholy on summer’s evenings (and most other types of evenings), I can find the sad part in almost any song, which is annoying.
Here’s a song about being happy though.
Dublin Duck Dispensary is Bobby Aherne, an off-kilter worldview and access to home recording. He’s been making lo-fi pop spanning the spectrum from Danielson-esque to Blood Visionary for a few years now, but 2008′s acupofteaandasliceofcake on Rack and Ruin Records is the first the world at large/anyone who knew him heard of him. Since then there’s been plenty: Luanqibazao, He Do The Police In Different Voices EP, the Yykes Basket 3″ and most recently the Antique Beach Resort tape. Last month saw a review in the Wire, but the last word on DDD remains Hot Press’ Jackie Hayden’s: “self-conscious smartarse indie pop-rock from somebody trying hard to come on like a really mad bastard…”
(Bobby’s also a friend and I play live with him, so you know.)
Dublin Duck Dispensary – Shoot The Curl
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Q 0.5 How are you?
Nevermind me… how are YOU? Welcome to my crib. Wipe your feet, sit down and relax. And don’t worry… I always dress like this.
<!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–> <!–[if gte mso 10]> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–>((To take you through this, Brian Kelly a.k.a. So Cow. The man needs no introduction, but if you need one, try here. See what I did there?))
Dublin Duck Dispensary – Luanqibazao
Rack and Ruin
Luanqibazao was the best Irish album released this year. I think. Not many will agree. But then they will have had both the advantage of actually listening to a lot of Irish music (I don’t really bother keeping up anymore, save GPO and Adebisi) and they will most likely have had the disadvantage of not even knowing this collection exists.
It’s been tagged as no-fi. Incorrect. This is fi. It’s pop-fi and it’s smile-fi. It’s gallop-fi and it’s fist-fi. It’s a selection of timeless pop moments run through a single adventurous, curious mind, that of Bobby Aherne. This isn’t about your Times New Vikings and your Lovvers’, this is about your Abbas (Mamma Mia!, not Mahmoud) and your early Beatles singles. Peg it with Slanted and Enchanted if you must indie-schmindie it up, but it’s far lovelier.
I can’t claim to have any idea what Aherne is singing about. I’m content not knowing either. It’s his world, after all. The arrangements on these songs are ridiculously more interesting than most others I’ve heard this year. There’s thought going into this, people. Original thought in that most played out of musical arenas.
There are standouts. Happy Holidays fizzes and spazzes. Break A Leg falls over itself in restrained giddiness before becoming something really quite beautiful. Roald Dahl is perfectly-judged childish pop dramatics. Brain Damage shames and embarrasses most contemporary bands in its 25 seconds.
Then again, I think Deerhunter and Beach House suck shit, so what do I know.
((I play in Bobby’s live band, so I felt awkward posting about the album, but I couldn’t let a list of 25 go without mentioning it, purely for the way it got into my head and fucked shit around this year. You can still get it for free on Rack and Ruin, along with acupofteaandasliceofcake and They Do The Police In Different Voices))
