[review 2005: the honourable mentions]

Most Dressy Bessy reviews write themselves these days. The story, it seems, is always the same: the band decides their last album doesn’t adequately reflect the rocking out they do in their live shows, so they record and release an even louder album. Then they proceed to tour the new album around, whereupon their sound gets louder still. Rinse and repeat. And if it sounds like I’m a little tired of the pattern, it’s only because the Denver four-piece are just too damned consistent. I’m waiting for the day when we can’t rely on Dressy Bessy for catchy, crunchy indie pop; 50-50 chance that day never comes.

If you want to capture Dressy Bessy’s evolution over the past four albums in just two songs, try “Jenny Come On” from their debut, Pink Hearts Yellow Moons, and “She Likes It” from Electrified. On the surface, the two songs are about as different as you’d expect considering they came from the same band. “Jenny Come On” is lofi twee pop of the sort you’d expect from a (then) Kindercore band. It’s got a pleasantly buzzy vibe, some coy, girlish vocals courtesy of Tammy Ealom, and a bit of jangly tamborine. In a perfect world, fourteen-year-old girls would put this on the record player in their candy-themed bedrooms and dream about that nice boy in fifth period Spanish who makes kissy faces at all the girls but whose heart, you’re sure, beats just for you. Oh yes. Then there’s “She Likes It,” all swagger and shake and in your face. Our cute little Ealom turns out to have a bit of attitude to her; here’s she’s all cool and confident, as though that fourteen-year-old grew up and became the twenty-something heartbreaker you knew was inside.

But interestingly, the ingredients haven’t actually changed all that much. Dressy Bessy is still Ealom, guitarist John Hill, bassist Rob Greene and drummer Darren Albert, the same lineup that recorded Pink Hearts Yellow Moons. And if you listen closely to some of those old tracks, you’ll hear a lot of the new Dressy Bessy. The jangly guitars and the bubblegum hooks haven’t disappeared; it’s just there’s now a healthy layer of distortion over top, and the band has grown into their larger sound over the years. Perhaps the sugary taste has been cut a bit with a little citrus. Other than that, there’s no reason why a fan of Dressy Bessy’s old stuff should balk at Electrified.

Well, perhaps one. If there’s aproblem with Electrified, it’s that the band has been a little too consistent over the years. As they turned up the volume dial with each successive album, Dressy Bessy also became more and more anonymous, to the point where they’re now just very good at what they do, but not especially notable otherwise. “Who’d Stop The Rain” and “RingAlingAling” are perfectly good tunes, and they’ll probably rattle around in your head for a bit as all good pop songs do. Some, like “Stop Foolin’” and the title track, will stick around longer. But perhaps what Ealom and company need to work on, now that they’ve got the rock swagger down pat, is to inject some personality back into the music.