No one thing makes Demonstration Tapes as incredible as it is. It's easy to point out how perfectly written the songs are, and the economy of moods this humble 3-piece can explore. Those, of course, are top notch. But sometimes an album can embody a historical conversation. The music here somehow reaches as far back as 60s girl groups, clearly their main influence, while also being a significant and obvious foundation for so many dozens of twee bands to ensue the following decades after its release, yet somehow execute the endearingly catchy guitar-pop styling of both worlds as well as anyone. It's easy to fall into the trap of historicity giving an undeserved something a pass, but this is not that. Dolly Mixture's career can be justifiably categorized as perfectly timed as it was perfectly conceived.
There are truly no duds on this record. That may be hard to believe for a 27 track twee record (depends on who you ask I guess) but it's true. That's in no small part due to the variety of feelings each track has to offer. Granted, given their constraints, a 3-piece guitar band clearly on a budget, you're not gonna hear any wackadoo bull***. Thank god. But given what they're working with, this record covers an incredible amount of ground from the stunningly hazy "The Didn't Song" to the stinging tongue-in-cheek of "How Come You're Such A Hit With The Boys, Jane?". But there are layers to it. The break-up songs aren't simply drab, the humorous songs are simply quirky, but there's a deep synthesis of these emotions in Dolly Mixture's music that comes off as satisfyingly low-effort. It's as if all the melodies and harmonies fall out of thin air for them. Nothing exemplifies this more than "Side Street Walker", a song about the crippling anxiety of unrequited love and the efforts we go through to avoid the stomach knots of running into the object of our torture. The fact that it's delivered in a whimsical, but no less musically complex, package adds to the depth of this feeling.
This tension is precisely how Demonstration Tapes succeeds. The tunes are mostly light and effervescent, but it's layered over a surprisingly muscular, gritty rhythm section. The lo-fi quality of the recording feels wrought from the earth, but the feelings it evokes are complex without sacrificing an ounce of naturalism. You can spend all day thinking about what makes each song so good, and I have, or you can just sit back and enjoy the ride, and I have way more often, and neither version of you will be wrong.
