From the distant, tinny starting countdown of opening track “Lonesome,” one could tell Dr. Dog feels particularly at home with the songs on Be The Void, the 7th album by Philadelphia’s currently most popular rock-revivalists. The band in no way ditches their “sound” on the new album, but they do embrace new aspects of the group and its sound. Most importantly, the lineup shifted, adding Eric Slick – one of the best young drummers in the country. Slick has been widening eyes since his early teens, and now brings both his youthful flare and eclectic percussive influences to an already storied band. The other new member, Dmitri Manos, is responsible for basically every sound on the new album that you are not used to hearing from the Dr. Dog camp. He has been called the “Mad Scientist” of the band, and looking at him tucked in the corner of the stage with his multitude of pedals and knobs (the obtuse comparison would be Geologist from AnCo), the nickname doesn’t seem too far off.
Since the beginning, the band has not shied away from their influences, but while sounding like some of the most influential bands of all time normally wouldn’t seem like a negative, the constant comparisons to the Beatles and Beach Boys (Pitchfork calls it a “McCartney-indebted,” but we get it) has pigeon-holed the group. While they have found a good amount of success, critically they have been fighting an uphill battle to prove that they are more than just a copy-cat act. If this new album doesn’t prove that assessment false, I don’t know what will.
After “Lonesome” gets the listener comfortable, the restless lead single “That Old Black Hole” kicks the album open. The track is catchy, conjectural and evolves into a sort of carnival tune on amphetamines. It is a delightful track and a great introduction for the newest members. The dichotomy of Scott ‘Taxi’ McMicken songs and Toby ‘Tables’ Leaman songs is still present; Scotty providing the poppier, more “accessible” songs, and Toby adding the grit and spit to the mix. This balance has always been an endearing part of the band, especially when they blur the line. An example of this is “These Days,” which actually sounds like a song written by McMicken and sung by Leaman. With the churning bass, staccato lead guitar and lines like, “I hate when people say those were the days/well what are these then,” it is one of the more rewarding tracks on the album both lyrically and musically.
A well-timed respite in the album comes in the form of the sullen lovelorn ballad “How Long Must I Wait,” and the harmony-laden “Get Away” completes a bridge that sounds eerily similar to the vocal work that made Fleet Foxes so popular. As a lyricist, Scott is at once romantic, abstract and charming. He deals with heavy topics with an air of candor and restraint that conveys complicated emotions while avoiding sentimentality. This is the case in “Do The Trick,” which is one of the poppiest tracks that Dr. Dog have created to date. This is not a knock on the band. In fact, the song is easily one of the best crafted songs on the album. It ebbs and flows on a fairly simple melody, without ever sounding stale. Similarly, the albums strongest song, “Heavy Light” is built on a sparse keyboard part that blooms into a lush, Bhangra-infused climax.
The back-end of the album has a relaxed, conversational feel with songs like the trippy, T-Rex influence “Warrior Man” and the rollicking “Big Girl,” which I can’t listen to without being reminded of this. The hazy, antique sounding “Turning The Century” closes the album not with a slam, but a peaceful sigh.
Dr. Dog have been constantly pushing themselves and their listeners; each album attempting to better themselves. These days everything musical has already been borrowed and recycled. That being said – one would expect being called a “copy-cat” band would be invalid given that most bands are copy-cats, but Dr. Dog were ostracized for being so good at replicating a sound that it somehow became a negative. The truth is though, and Be The Void is the best example of this to date, that despite their tendency to harken back to earlier rock styles, Dr. Dog is an incredibly creative, intuitive and trendsetting band that have sculpted a timeless sound that is fully their own. Be The Void is a rousing success of an album (their best to date) that will influence and progress music for years to come. You can purchase Be The Void via Anti Records or any distribution outlets that you enjoy using. – Adam G.
