Note: This review previously appeared in the Illinois Entertainer.
Too True, the latest release from Dum Dum Girls, continues a tradition from their previous efforts of marrying angst to irresistible melodies. There’s also that blend of 1960s style twanging guitar and new wave, although it now tilts more toward the rougher edges of Depeche Mode and Bauhaus. Singer-guitarist Dee Dee Penny once again does most of the work herself, but with able assistance in melancholy from Sune Rose Wagner of The Raveonettes.
While most of Too True is comprised of love songs, they’re set on dark, mist-shrouded landscapes. “Day in, day out, I’m always alone,” Dee Dee Penny observes on the energetic “In The Wake Of You,” and on the sinfully catchy “Evil Blooms,” she advises, “Be beautiful and sad.” The stark “Trouble Is My Name” could be from the point of view of a sympathetic arch-villain in a film or novel, and on the massively atmospheric “Lost Boys And Girls Club,” Dee Dee Penny wonders, “But what is it that I’m pursuing?” None of us may be sure about that, but Too True is still a dark and enchanting voyage.
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