The Dandy Warhols
Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia

THE REVIEW

Summer 2002, a record store in the center of Florence. In front of me, on the album cover, there's a big red label, written in perfect English, which reads: "VODAFONE - INCLUDES BOHEMIAN LIKE YOU FROM THE VODAFONE COMMERCIAL".

Already this kind of cheap marketing ploy would make you want to put the album back on the shelf, if it weren't for the fact that I already knew the Dandies at the time and knew the band's worth. "Bohemian Like You" has never been among Taylor-Taylor's best pieces for me, already "Get Off" (a cheerful britpop guitar riff and Courtney's usual low singing), the first single released from this "Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia", in my opinion, had more radio and melodic appeal. Oh well, the power of commercials...

"Thirteen..." is still a great album, a kind of melting pot where the band had fun merging the usual influences from previous albums in a qualitatively greater context. Almost entirely written by Taylor-Taylor (except for "The Gospel" in collaboration with Holmstrom), the album travels along the usual lines of a British-influenced rock enriched with just the right amount of psychedelia, redundant guitars (a very beautiful acoustic-electric intertwining often appears) and just enough of "drugged" and deliberately nonchalant atmospheres.

The opener "Godless" presents itself well, with its vaguely "western" arrangement and very discreet and pleasant acoustic guitar; following is "Mohammed", with visible percussion and an oriental atmosphere. "Nietzche" is the first to unleash the electric guitars, Courtney sings using a monotonous register, as if hypnotized, influenced by something. An electronic background noise accompanies us throughout the piece, creating a deliberately annoying patina in the chorus. Nice touch. Then comes "Country Leaver", a pseudo country piece that the Dandies love to place in almost every album (listen to "The New Country" in the latest "Odditorium..."), which introduces us to a lighthearted "Solid" and an aggressive "Horse Pills" (vaguely revisited later by Marilyn Manson for their "mOBSCENE"). "Sleep" is a simple but beautiful acoustic ballad accompanied by Courtney's falsetto, "Cool Scene" is more upbeat. "Shakin'" is a chaotic little rock number that seems like a head-on collision between the Vines and Blur, "Big Indian" seems stolen from Noel Gallagher’s notebook and gives way to the final of "The Gospel", an unbelievably slow and hallucinated piece, almost like a funeral march filled with amphetamines.

A great work that launched the Warhols onto the international rock scene and even after years of repeated listening, it doesn't wear out.

If you love the genre, it's worth getting your hands on it.