The Dodos - Time to Die Review

The Dodos Time to Die

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Tracklist:
1 Small Deaths
2 Longform
3 Fables
4 The Strums
5 This Is a Business
6 Two Medicines
7 Troll Nacht
8 Acorn Factory
9 A Time to Die

Release Date: 08/31/2009

user rating

3.6
great

Chart.

other reviews

Ryan Flatley STAFF (3.5)
The Dodos resonate an intriguing, altered sound in a continuously enjoyable listen in Time To Die...

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Visiter

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On 7 Lists

4.0
excellent

Lewis P. USER (5 Reviews)

2009-08-04 | 18 comments | 955 views

Summary: The kind of album you like the first time you hear it and pretty much after every subsequent listen. Just really good; pretense not necessary.

2 of 2 thought this review was well written

Between all the post-release buzz for Visiter and beer commercials that worked hard to pinpoint the Dodos as another best big act in a swarm of them, it’s hard to feel that Time to Die is anything other than a tiny miracle. For one, you get about what you would expect a follow up to the band’s alarmingly self-assured sophomore release would sound like: a warm concoction of folk, classic Americana and freshly baked psychedlica, grooved into some of the most likable vocal melodies to flit out of a car stereo since “My Girls.” The kind of album you like the first time you hear it and pretty much after every subsequent listen. Just really good; pretense not necessary.

For another, the Dodos have figured out the problem that made Visiter such an intriguing album to not love. With only two men at the helm, Meric Long (vocals/guitar) and Logan Kroeber (percussion), the abundance of ideas evident lacked the amount of cooks necessary to fully flesh them out. That Visiter remained a triumph of classic operatic storytelling, folk arrangements, melodramatic balladry and a fresh sense of modern politics says a lot about the talent already on display. With the addition of vibraphone player Keaton Snyder, the band is free to distribute the weight equally, and the result is nothing short of full-bodied. A bit more bravado, a little tongue-in-cheek, a wealth of emotion; everything that made the Dodos work so well in the first place is out for all to see on Time to Die, and there’s nary a negative in sight.

If all this talk of sustained sound makes Time to Die seem safe, well, it very well could be. With a gear that rarely shifts from “go,” the momentum comes imbued with a restless quality that it seems all involved had to play their part as quick as possible before they lost it. There’s little room for experimentation, though I’d imagine that would muddy the style, which breathes because of its frankness. The soft rumbles evoked from “Small Deaths” subdue tension before its cathartic anthemic climax, where Kroeber’s drum rolls drive forward Long’s lyrics, a technique used to great effect in other songs such as “Longform” and “This is a Business.” The flowery melodies in “Fables,” characterized by some of the album’s finest vocal harmonies, are so contagious that its easy to forget the song is a serious representation of an unstable judicial system.

The band’s tackling of modern issues was a major draw on Visiter (it was hard to go into “Fools” without recalling the presidency at the time) and they once again manage to give their melodies that added depth. “You have a heartache, but it never really hurts,” Long begins on centerpiece “Two Medicines,” and the song’s playful jaunt contradicts some serious condescension regarding reliance on pharmaceuticals, and later, material possessions: “You gather millions / and you stick it in a well / it’s like an opera / just singing about yourself / you feel nothing.” “Two Medicines” also manages to be a brilliant showcase for Snyder, who glosses over the verses with just the right amount of vibraphone action. The current economic crisis feeds the venom spiking “This is a Business,” with some fine guitar fiddling to rival a devil in Georgia.

The Dodos slow it down a bit for “Acorn Factory,” though it still manages a healthy uptempo for what could amount to be the album’s lovelorn ballad (“So undo, it’s time you should go / I knew you’re just another ghost / on your own”), though if it’s to a lover or his country is never readily made apparent. But for all the album’s talk of death, namely album opener “Small Deaths” and closer, “A Time to Die,” it never feels less than life-affirming. When Long sings “I recall the promises that you undid,” holding the note into the song’s tempo change from lazy indifference to steamroller, it feels like a rare moment when a song of protest manages to inspire itself. Until Long trades “good news for everyone” for “no use for everyone” for “your pain is everyone’s,” and or at least, “that’s what the channel says.” Like there’s anything more appropriate in 2009 than a band called the Dodos attempting to explain what makes us human, and what unfortunately doesn’t. All in the warmest, most comfortable offering this year yet.

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