Rainydawg Album Review
Cats
De Novo Dahl
A six-piece hailing out of a region where twang and God-loving country reign king (that would be Nashville), De Novo Dahl have certainly carved a name for themselves with their full-length debut, Cats. The vocal duties are shared among four band members, some sounding more cartoonish than others, thereby giving the sub-genre of indie-pop a nice, awakening kick in the nuts. And the vocals are accompanied by a whole host of instruments providing a steady foothold for the band who are most likely surrounded by cowboy hats and belt buckles the size of Texas. But be warned, this music is not for the faint of heart. De Novo Dahl doesn’t restrain themselves when it comes to extremely cheerful beats and energetic keyboards. They are so much fun, in fact, that they’ve been known to have beach parties at their live shows. And ice cream!
The music definitely reflects this as the songs within themselves scatter all over the place and manically bounce off the walls. They’ve mastered their childhoods with the Super Mario Brothers riff on “The Funk” and the channeling of Elvis Costello in his younger years with “Be Your Man”. And just when you’ve broken a sweat trying to keep up with their sugar-high, De Novo Dahl retreats with white flags blazing and laces songs with coy female vocals (“Piggy’s Adventure”) and droning harmonies (“Ryan Patrick Huseman Darrow”). Unfortunately, with these emotionally honest songs dispersed throughout the more fast paced, they tend to sound sleepy and lazy, and induce heart attacks when they charge back into their brand of dance party. Perhaps this can be forgiven, though; with gentle chimes and a little Irish fiddle, De Novo Dahl hardly has any trouble achieving a charming and admirable status.
With this kind of creativity sweating through their pores, it’s easy to overlook their affliction with ADHD. Eventually, you’ll come to understand that the gas pedal and the brakes are one in the same with this band. And if you like the crazed euphoria that this band encourages so well, you can jump right into the remixes, titled Kittens, that they’ve included with Cats. Because when you’ve got the ice cream, you might as well have the sprinkles, too.