REVIEW: The Dodos - No Color

Dodos
No Color
(Wichita)
(out of 5)

It's redemption time for Long and Kroeber - highly touted as revivalists of a once-more stagnant alternative folk movement stemming from their second album Visiter. They've learned the hard way that changing a formula sometimes is for the worst.

Time To Die set them back a long way in the eyes of critics. Does it help then that the duo have roped in Neko Case for their latest release, No Color? Indeed it has its benefits. But that is to discredit the two-piece's knack for songwriting.

No Color harks back to what made the group popular in the first place - their twisted assault on folk conventions. ‘Don't Try And Hide It’ washes itself in Americana familiar to Two Gallants. This represents the grander elements of American folk music. This is what made Dodos stand out amongst the rest. ‘Going Under’ marks itself out though as a typical Dodos song - the off-kilter drumming and guitar structure is what gave the group a new legion of folk followers, throwing aside the regularities that might have put folk purists off.

Throughout the album, you come to realise just how special Dodos are in the music scene. They've the nuances that make a convention of music interesting once again. Turning what was often thought of as a softer genre into something aggrandising by subverting it and making it heavy. It's perhaps what was missing in their last album and is prominent once again with this one.

By Benjii Jackson