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The Dandy Warhols Come Down

by The Dandy Warhols

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The major-label debut from Portland's psychedelic-pop protagonists swirls earfuls of 1960s guitar riffs around 1990s Brit-pop nuances. If Come Down occasionally sounds like Neil Young fronting Oasis ("Boys Better," "Minnesoter") or Lou Reed doing The Verve ("Good Morning"), it just as often turns self-referential and obscure. The quartet constructs a slavishly fashionable sound rife with drug references (the relentlessly jangly post-Cobain anthem, "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth," includes the memorable chorus: "Heroin is so passe") and sleepy, detached elegance. There's sweeping beauty here, too, in the lush, intricate guitar work (courtesy Courtney Taylor and Peter Holmstrom) and the cooing female backing vocals (Zia McCabe). --Mark Woodlief