Sophomore albums ain't an easy thing to nail and the Dum Dum Girls can be forgiven for not living up to the altitudes of their debut LP. Released last year, I Will Be was interesting, gritty and cute, and received deserved praise. Follow-up LP, Only In Dream, as a whole, is mundane, droll and tiresome.
But first let's take a look at stand-out track Coming Down, a crushing ode to the heartaches of a love lost. On I Will Be heavy reverberation conceals leading lady, Kirsten Gundred's – stage name Dee Dee Penny – voice, but on this track it soars above a spangling guitar and puncturing snare drum. Coming Down is a change of pace from the rest of the album – slow, melancholic emotive. It's reminiscent of Mazzy Star's Fade Into You. If you ever had a real heart/ I don't think you'd know where to start, Gundred wails with real feeling. And she makes you feel too, deeply.
However, the rest of the album is superficial 60s dream-pop meets DIY garage grunge angst, which is then fed through a formulae of fuzzy guitar, driving bass and a could-be-drum machine drum beats.
Leading single Bedroom Eyes is quintessential of the album; at once catchy and exhausting it follows a rigid structure and doesn't strays from fuzz-pop mould. Like nearly every track on the album it begins with a punchy, infectious beat, jovial guitar riff and indulgent lyrics sung with a, admittedly, Gundred's lovely voice.
But then there is Coming Down. And then, finally, Hold Your Hand, the closing track. Hold Your Hand is a humbling song about death, grief and support, no doubt imbued by the lose of Gundred's mother during the recording of this album. The track is pretty and a little zany, think Bat For Lashes, and ends the album on a contented note.
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