Hey! I'm a 19 year old English literature student from Kent. I love music, films, photography, art...
Hey! I'm a 19 year old English literature student from Kent. I love music, films, photography, art, reading and writing.
Member since:05.12.2006
Reviews:19
The Dresden Dolls are Amanda Palmer (lead vocals and piano) and Brian Vigilone (vocals, drums and guitar). They describe their style as ‘Brechtian punk cabaret’, and with dark lyrics and a piano, this is a rather accurate description. ‘Yes, Virginia’ (which is named after the article in the New York Sun which responded to the question ‘Is there a Santa Claus?’ with the answer ‘Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus’) was originally released in 2006 and is the third album from The Dresden Dolls.
The album has some key differences from The Dresden Dolls self-titled previous album. In a way it seems a lot more mature as there is less of the bizarre punk cabaret listeners became accustomed to in the previous album. Instead of featuring tracks which are more like darker children’s stories, this album seems a lot easier to relate to.
In ‘Yes, Virginia’ Amanda and Brian attempt to tackle a lot of serious issues. This is shown in the amazing and beautiful ballad Delilah, which follows the story of a woman who is being abused both physically and emotionally by her boyfriend. Amanda takes the perspective of a concerned friend who wants nothing more than to get Delilah out of this situation. The song is pretty much an encouragement to women to get out of either physically or emotionally abusive relationships because they deserve better. Unfortunately for Delilah this is an option that she is unwillingly to take, hence the somewhat hurtful but true lyrics ‘And if you take him back/ You get what you deserve/ I never met a more impossible girl.’ Delilah is by far one of the two standout songs on the album.
It isn’t all doom and gloom on this album though. Tracks such as Backstabber, Dirty Business, My Alcoholic Friends and Mandy Goes to Med School have more of a playful and fun sound to them although you may not think this when you listen to the lyrics, however they perfectly show off Amanda Palmer’s skill in piano.
For me the best point of the album is its finale. ‘Sing’ encompasses everything that an album closer should be. Rather than just being a filler track on the album it builds up perfectly to an emotional ending. Sing is an encouraging and rallying cry to anyone who is listening to the song, and is almost a way of ordering you to just open up and sing, regardless of what else is going on in the world. The second verse is my favourite: ‘There is thing keeping everyone's lungs and lips locked/ It is called fear and it's seeing a great renaissance/ After the show you can not sing wherever you want/ But for now let's just pretend we're all gonna get bombed’. This song is incredibly hard to describe, although it isn’t a particularly sad song I did feel like I was about to cry when singing along to it. The build up is marvellous, ending with both Amanda and Brian ad-libing and Amanda screaming ‘You mother*****s, you’ll sing someday.’
I think the people who are likely to appreciate this are those who aren’t afraid of their music being a little bit dark. Although The Dresden Dolls aren’t technically a rock band due to not having an electric guitar the overall sound is quite heavy. Although the album is slightly less crazy than what we might be used to from The Dresden Dolls, it is nonetheless an amazing album, if you’re not completely convinced then I’d still suggest you have a listen to Delilah and Sing, just so you can understand what I’m talking about.
Track listing: 1. Sex Changes 2. Backstabber 3. Modern Moonlight 4. My Alcoholic Friends 5. Delilah 6. Dirty Business 7. First Orgasm 8. Mrs. O. 9. Shores Of California 10. Necessary Evil 11. Mandy Goes To Med School 12. Me & The Minibar 13. Sing
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Sex Changes @@us/euwm2/842/6645842_1_01.asx?obj=v60301@@ Backstabber ... more
@@us/euwm2/842/6645842_1_02.asx?obj=v60301@@ Modern Moonlight @@us/euwm2/842/6645842_1_03.asx?obj=v60301@@ My Alcoholic Friends @@us/euwm2/842/6645842_1_04.asx?obj=v60301@@ Delila...
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Advantages: Unique, Amusing, High Quality, Great Voices, Good Musicains, Interesting album art Disadvantages: Not the best value CD, Some songs to short, Not suitable for young children
Advantages: Plenty of wonderfully quirky and unique songs. Disadvantages: A little less punk-cabaret than their debut album - some people won't like that...
Advantages: Plenty of wonderfully quirky and unique songs. Disadvantages: A little less punk-cabaret than their debut album - some people won't like that...
Advantages: Unique, Amusing, High Quality, Great Voices, Good Musicains, Interesting album art Disadvantages: Not the best value CD, Some songs to short, Not suitable for young children
Advantages: There really are a couple of stunning tracks and it is essentially the same Dolls sound Disadvantages: You get the impression that many of the tracks are recycled versions of better songs...
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