Rating
4.5

Remastered and remixed, The Dandy Warhols Are Sound takes the Let It Be … Naked approach to the Dandy’s 2003 release, Welcome to the Monkey House. Basically, Capitol Records producers snubbed the Dandy Warhols’ creative intentions, shelving a mix of Monkey House for a more commercialized version. Sound is the band’s original intention, as done-up by Grammy Award-winning soul mix engineer, Russel Elevado.

It begins slowly with a shorter version of “You Come In Burned.” If you’ve heard it, you can already tell this is going to be a much different take than Monkey House. All the nitty-gritty lo-fi is omnipresent, and all the grating hyper-pop noise has been dubbed down, as evident in “Scientist.” It’s not an entirely different song, but the atheist themes are delivered more immediately, making the music being more pleasurable to listen to.

Monkey House was a follow-up to Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia, the album that made The Dandy Warhols famous. But Monkey House made them just another pop band, totally diverting from their original groove. Sound represents what they really are — a stoner rock group with a knack for brilliant satire.

“I Am Over It,” for example, is frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor’s promise not to ride out his career too long, and “Heavenly” is reflecting on what the band has accomplished. The Dandys see fame as kind of a gag and don’t take it very seriously. Their concerns are merely to reassure fans they won’t become like your typical rock god.

On “We Used to Be Friends,” one can relate immediately to Taylor-Taylor’s lament over lost relations. Once upon a time, the Dandy’s were good friends with Anton Newcombe, of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, but the two bands split over Newcombe’s aggressive personality disorders. The band obviously felt bad for the way things ended and penned the song almost like waving a flag of surrender.

In fact, every track seems to carry more weight. “The Last High” is more trippy and eerie than ever, extended to almost seven minutes. “I Am Sound” is given an icy, fresh feeling, really emphasizing the feelings of brokenness and resurrection.

Welcome to the Monkey House wasn’t the finest Warhol album, but it was the one most in need of a facelift. It’s more than just an improvement; it’s the way the music was meant to be heard. Furthermore, this album isn’t just an album — it’s a declaration of independence, a stand for “art for art’s sake” and a call for keeping music pure.