Amanda Palmer - Who Killed Amanda Palmer
Solo Dresden Doll makes a great Dresden Dolls album
Roadrunner
By Andrew P Street
This
was originally conceived as a two-week, recording-in-the-bedroom affair
for Palmer to get shot of the ballads that kept missing the cut for
Dresden Dolls albums. Except then she got talking to Ben Folds, who
came on board to produce - which then lead Palmer to write a bunch of
upbeat songs which, let's not be coy, sound awfully Dresden Dollsy.
Listen to the breathless 'Runs In The Family' and the opening 'Astronaut: A Short History Of Nearly Nothing', where the machine gun
snare fills and cymbal punctuations immediately evoke the articulate
playing of the absent ‘Doll, drummer Brian Viglione. That being said,
there are some excursions into new territory: 'Leeds United' is a
piano-pounding knees-up, complete with drunken brass and lines like
"who needs love when there's Dukes Of Hazzard?" delivered in a demented
bellow; 'Strength Through Music' has a sonorous spoken word intro
courtesy of Dead Kennedys' guitarist East Bay Ray, and Annie "St
Vincent" Clark turns up for a perky version of 'What's The Use Of
Wond'rin'?'
However, Palmer's gift for delivering an entire narrative
in one understated couplet is as strong as ever, as in ‘Blake Says''
casual "He tells me that he's fine / And the sad thing is, he's right"
- and her nod to Lou Reed's ‘Caroline Says II' with the closing,
repeated refrain "It's still cold in Alaska" raises a wry, sad smile.
So we're still waiting for that bedroom album, then.