• Rating:
"Why You So Crazy" is a very important album for the Dandy Warhols.
It arrives right in the midst of the celebrations for the band's twenty-fifth career anniversary, led by the eccentric Courtney Taylor-Taylor, and compared to the good predecessor "Distortland," it marks a return to a more eclectic and schizophrenic approach, somewhat reminiscent of episodes like "Odditorium Or Warlords Of Mars" (a beautiful and highly underrated album released in 2005) or the less successful "... Earth To The Dandy Warhols...".
Upon closer analysis of the stylistic choices for this new work, the said approach is brought to the extreme as it has never been in the career of the American band; the days of mega-hits and the more canonical pop-rock of "Bohemian Like You" and "We Used To Be Friends" are now gone, and only a vague trace remains in the psych-pop-rock of the beautiful "Be Alright" (not coincidentally chosen by Dine Alone as the first single from the album). Away goes the compactness (as much as a DW album can be compact) of the previous record; the album jumps from a forty-second intro dedicated to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, both in homage and in sound, to the industrial of the memorable "Terraform," to the trip-hop of "The Next Thing I Know." Moreover, ending such a varied album with a (furthermore beautiful) six-minute piece of classical music for piano ("Ondine") says a lot about the combative intentions of the now former boys from Portland.
There are few, very few points of contact between one track and another, perhaps the Bowiesque attitude of Taylor-Taylor that links "Thee Elegant Bum" and "To The Church," besides the Dolly Parton-like country of "Highlife" (with a splendid Zia McCabe on vocals) or diluted with pop and Eno-style electronics of the picturesque second single "Motor City Steel."
An extremely schizophrenic, interesting, and courageous album, "Why You So Crazy"; where other bands might have surrendered to a more canonical approach, the Dandy Warhols continue to express themselves with full freedom often leading to convincing outcomes. Yet another proof of the (often reckless) courage of a band that has survived twenty-five years of storms and still has no intention of giving up without a fight.
Best Track: Ondine
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