Labels: Bombed Out Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Dugong: what on earth is a Dugong? Find out here, but only once you’ve read this review to find out more about the band, yo!
Dugong: who on earth are Dugong? 4 chaps from oop north, giving a fresh spin on the UK melodic punk style, that’s who. And they had some absolutely rotten luck in getting this CD out, but the original recordings were stolen and they had to start from scratch. Which is a pretty shitty situation to be in for a small UK band. Well, all’s well that ends well, because they have gone out and made a pretty fine debut album.
They certainly get the record off to a fine start with the bounce-athon of “Decide To Fall”, which is all about the catchy riffage and the melody. The vocal work is really strong, which is a feature throughout this album. Quite often music of this style declines into dreary whine-rock, but Dugong give it the full whack, lots of singin’ and no sobbing. They give the screamy backing vocals a go at times, which doesn’t work for me, to be honest – have a listen to Bedford to hear screams done well on poppy music.
Things are varied too, they have slower tracks like the more college rockin’ “All Saint’s Walk”, that has touches of Superchunk about it, much in the same way as Pylon. It also breaks down into a really nice acoustic part and the remainder of the song is more like the stuff Broccoli were doing when they finished. Nice blend of styles! There’s even a couple of instrumental numbers that work well, and almost serve to divide the album up into passages in some strange way! “I Have My Mothers Eyes” is done really nicely, with the added emo touch of having samples of kids in a playground looping underneath it. Who’d a thunk it, a post-rock track on a Bombed Out release? And there’s more! “People Like You Are Hard to Find” sounds like it has organ! Gosh! It’s chorus = the Promise Ring. Then “Bang For Changes” has cello and violin on it (very Blacktop Cadence)! Lordy.
Gripes? Not many. A couple of the tracks aren’t so up my street (generally – the ones which stray into Deep Elm-ish indie rock territory – “Keeper When Needed” for example), but hey. Also, the final acoustic track – I have to be honest, I have never made it all the way through that one yet. Sorry. Oh, and I keep confusing the cd case with the Some Soviet Station one. Have some consideration”¦
I’m not really sure who to make comparisons to overall. Some hints of early Get Up Kids, later Promise Ring, and unsurprisingly, other UK bands who have been playing melodic punk the past few years – bands like Shonben and Southport, but with a poppier slant overall. I think if you like any of that, you’d really be into this record – it’s not the sort of music I am listening to everyday and even I think it’s great. So make of that what you will!