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Rating: * * * *
The only company likely to use a song from the Dandy Warhols' new album in an ad are the makers of Spaceman cigarettes. This time round the Portland quartet, who will be remembered by many as the Vodafone band because of the song Bohemian Like You, are out there floating in space.
Following Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia in 2000, the album with "that song" on it, they released two bland records which makes the beautifully haphazard Earth To ... a refreshing return to form.
It swirls into life with The World The People Together (Come On), then into the psychedelic chug of Mission Control; and Welcome to the Third World is like meets the Fun Lovin' Criminals. It takes a turn into dark and dirgeful territory for album highlight, Wasp In the Lotus, but after that it gets gloriously shambolic with the noisy mariachi band style on Mis Amigos, the country stomp of The Ballad of Sheriff Shorty, and the 15-minute strings-soaked ambience of last track Musee D'Nougat. To make it even more whacky, headband-wearing guitarist Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits shows up, wielding his dobro-style axe on Love Song.
Yes, it's chaotic, some might say silly, but somehow it works.
Scott Kara
