This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
We live in a world obsessed with pop culture. But The Dandy Warhols take it to another level.
Their name, of course, is a pun on the ’60s pop artist. Their latest CD title is nicked from a Kurt Vonnegut book. The cover art blends The Velvet Underground’s first album and The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers. The languid, trippy sound is a pastiche of ’70s and ’80s — the glam of Marc Bolan, the avant-wave of Scary Monsters-era David Bowie, the fuzzy electro-soul of Love and Rockets. The first verse on the first song name-drops Wire, Elastica, Michael Jackson and The Beatles’ Black Bird.
By all rights, Welcome To The Monkey House should topple like the house of cards it is. Yet somehow, these musical magpies manage to keep it together. Maybe it’s that frontman Courtney Taylor has a way with a hook, as irresistible groovers like We Used To Be Friends make unforgettably clear. Maybe it’s his vocals, which toggle between a hoarse, breathy croon to a soaring soul-man falsetto, adding texture and variety to his bandmates’ hypnotic, serpentine backdrops. Or maybe it’s just that the Dandys know how to recombine the best parts of their influences into an entity greater than the sum of its parts. Whatever, it seems that for The Dandy Warhols, nothing succeeds like excess.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ljbE4YfmeHUj-nyIPJV8dJxCWbYuofebo
