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Dogs Die In Hot Cars 'Please Describe Yourself'
Almost universally chastised for their wilfully awful name, Dogs Die In Hot Cars have upped the ante and made one of the most tunefully eclectic debuts in recent memory.
From the off, DDIHC defiantly lay their cards on the table with the XTC stomp of ‘Godhopping’ complete with its baffling “All the way to Bombay” refrain. Even singer Craig Macintosh admits he’s not entirely sure what all the lyrics mean, but when nonsense sounds this great, who cares?
Quickly following this up with their slacker call-to-sofas ‘Lounger’ and splendidly skanking current single ‘I Love You Cause I Have To’ and already this feels like something special. A leftfield, curveball, off-the-wall type of special, but special none the less. Quirky and tuneful, each song has that favourable quality of sounding diverse enough to hold your attention without sounding like a Various Artists compilation.
Other highlights include the celebrity girlfriend shopping list that is ‘Celebrity Sanctum’ and the more introspective ‘Somewhat Off The Way’. While the references to the education system may betray their age, (“Where the teachers any good at it, Were they good at their jobs? It must be hard, can they handle it, when we become what we said we’d not?”) it’s hard not to admire Macintosh’s unpredictable and observant lyrical style.
‘Apples And Oranges’ is a prime example of the Dogs knack for taking a simple song structure and twisting it with Macintosh’s clipped vocal and the never-sound-the-same-twice keyboards of Ruth Quigley to make something instantly memorable that's laden with more hooks than a world fishing summit.
Criticisms are generally few and far between with a tracklisting almost completely devoid of filler (though ‘Modern Women’ begins to wane after a couple of minutes). In fact, the main problem with this album is that at just over 30 minutes it’s finished almost as soon as it’s begun.
All in all, ‘Please Describe Yourself’ is a confident, witty and self-assured debut from one of Britain’s brightest young hopes. Look past the name and enjoy one of the most simultaneously immediate and intelligently written indie albums of the year.
Dogs Die In Hot Cars 'Please Describe Yourself' (V2) Released July 12, 2004.
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