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Product Description
Review
Half an hour, half the package. Merely listening to Darwin Deez’s eponymous debut robs you of the bizarre and hilarious spectacle of his live show, which features this lanky vision of a hippie Sideshow Bob performing synchronised dance routines with his backing band between numbers, like a hipster-pop Diversity. And you’d be forgiven for thinking the record itself displayed a fraction of Darwin’s capabilities, with its Bontempi beats recalling the theme to Flight of the Conchords, its cheap guitars mimicking Albert Hammond Jr and its overwhelming buzz of the bedroom.
Succumb to your inner Sebadoh, though, and the scratchiness of these ten home-made pop gems adds to their charm, and to the album’s making-of-a-cult status. Deez exhibits the songwriting panache of a Brendan Benson or Ben Folds, and this album acts as his DIY taster in the same way as the former’s One Mississippi and the latter’s work with Majosha. Singles like the Strokes-y Constellations and the brilliantly itchy Radar Detector – essentially Folds’s Jack and Sarah mating with Someday in the back of a Death Cab – feel like fully formed alt-disco hits, but the likes of Up in the Clouds and Bed Space hint at a luscious aesthetic waiting to have its fidelity heightened.
Lyrically Deez tackles the traditional bedroom geek concerns – girls, basically, and how not to land yourself one – but with a darkly comic bent. DNA finds him refusing to acknowledge the end of a relationship at all, The Suicide Song is a cheery hand-clapper that follows him on a plunge from a tall building (“On the way down I see your face / Is laughing at one of my idiot boy mistakes”) and The Bomb revels in grotesque imagery of a post-nuclear war landscape – “The sky is green / The clouds are brown / The city’s a ghost town…” – as a backdrop to Deez convincing a girl to fancy him now that he is, quite literally, the last man on Earth. Frankly, it’s amazing the album retains its collegiate pop party feel through such tongue-in-cheek devastation.
As studios close and GarageBand becomes the fount of all debut albums, expect an increase in adorable, kooky and cool little pop records like this one. As Deez inevitably ascends into the velveteen environs of professional production, let’s hope he doesn’t paper too thickly over these colourful cracks. --Mark Beaumont
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible album,
By Stevieboyo (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Darwin Deez (Audio CD)
Darwin Deez's recordings are mostly stripped down and kept simple and unadorned but they pulse and throb deliciously with life and a rare wit. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine anyone else with such a fondness for twisted wordplay and lyricism like Mr Deez. For instance, the bouncily infectious "Bad Day" is actually quite possibly the most mischievous missive aimed at a romantic rival, with Darwin rattling off an imaginary wish list of misfortunes that he hopes will befall his arch nemesis: "I hope that the last page of your 800 page novel is missing / I hope that it rains if you leave the window down on your red Mustang". The single "Radar Detector" meanwhile, is as lovely and sun-kissed as you can possibly get, as he sings about cruising around Los Angeles with his partner and going shopping and "fall(ing) asleep inside the mattress store".However, it is also important to note that there is also an emotive undertow of sadness and longing in his oeuvre, rising just above the surface in songs such as the desolate "The Bomb Song", with his plaintive exhortations of "say you love me now / maybe you will say you love me now" in the chorus. And in "Deep Sea Divers" he dissects a crumbling relationship by literally depicting them both sinking down into the ocean, as he poses the heartbreaking question "little yellow fish are happy it's not so tough / would everything you wish you had be good enough?" against a beautiful backdrop of chiming guitars. This album is by turns joyous and heart tugging, winsome and wistful, glorious and gorgeous, buoyed aloft by Deez's ear for a soaring chorus and a catchy tune, not to mention his knack for a killer couplet.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Get With The Jiggle !,
By
This review is from: Darwin Deez (Audio CD)
Darwin Deez is both a band and a man (and what a man he is!!)If I could still get into the bright red pair of size 30 (30!!) waist loon pants in the back of my 70's wardrobe I'd be wearing them right now. Both the man and the band have made something rather special here. Darwin Deez is a gentle phenomenon. More spit than polish; more crafty than crafted; more fun than putting a ferret down your trousers just to see how long you can keep it there without being bitten. The ten songs on this blissfully barmy album are all rough-cut diamonds. The no-frills production makes them somehow more immediate, more credible and definately more enjoyable. The tunes are good; the beats are dance-friendly (in a slinky move-it-to-the-left-move-it-to-the-right kind of way) and Mr Deez's voice is a charmingly laconic and friendly instrument which, despite its evident limitations, has a convincing ability to communicate the gentle soul of these beguiling compositions. The terse optimism running through 'The Suicide Song' makes it one of the jolliest self-destructive songs I have ever heard. The dreamy melody of 'Bed Space' conceals evidence of lost love and a broken heart. The simple harmonies are delightful and the elusive chord sequence at its core adds to the sense of sadness and emotional dislocation. A strangely affecting little ditty. 'Deep Sea Divers' is another classy composition. The jangly, four-square arrangement supports one of the album's strongest melodic and lyrical ideas. Mr Deez coasts through it with effortlessly agreeable aplomb. Single 'Radar Detector' has a very high feelgood-factor. An idosyncratic and addictive slice of pure pop perfection. Final track 'Bad Day' lopes along in an almost funky way and is very funny indeed. Someone else's bad day is always more comical than our own and Mr Deez constructs a particularly bad one. At the end of the day there's not a thing not to like about this cracking collection. Music to make you smile and jiggle. Highly Recommended.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deelightful,
By
This review is from: Darwin Deez (Audio CD)
Ignore the haircut (or lack of). Ignore the hopefully-ironic `tache. Try even to ignore the "wacky" name, bells and whistles. With little other than a minimal keyboard, hand-clap percussion and a head full of fairies, Deez has pulled a masterstroke on his self-titled debut. His saccharine-high, indie ditties are undercut with literate perversion, his summery whimsy laced with hippy gold.Simple, Darwin Deez is a more-often-than-not great pop-star. He stands out from the crowd, is anti-establishment and has a few poptacular tunes to back it all up. The project is gleefully lent credibility with its bedroom qualities - be warned, there is little shiny over-production here. On "Constellations" he even gets away with the lyrical opening "Twinkle, twinkle little star / How I wonder what you are" - a true master at work you'll agree. It's three-minute perfection, taken down a touch for the mid-tempo follow-on "Deep Sea Divers", which coasts on lazy melody and hazy soft percussion. "DNA" skips through fields of tall grass with a favoured partner, basking in its own radiance and talking whimsically of "double strands" and "molecules". The spiralling guitar on "Up In The Clouds" suggests a schooling in The Strokes, the up-and-down guitar progressions of "The Bomb Song" in Interpol, though Deez bathes the both of them in a poppy haze. His voice is given a little echo for the highly likeable "Bed Space", which drawls and spins like looking at the clouds from a freshly mown lawn. The downright unstoppable single "Radar Detector" is a danceable, loveable alt-pop masterpiece that leads into the darkly comic finisher "Bad Day". Bouncing along it conspires by multifarious hypothetical means to ruin some poor unknown's day. "Everyday ought to be a bad day for you" Deez starts, before continuing "I would like to be your girlfriend so I could dump you". Sure, it may all age badly and Deez will likely never again get the balance right, but for now, Deez looks set to be the king of summer.
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