The Dandy Warhols: Welcome to the Monkey House : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

ln the course of their first three albums, the Dandy Warhols perfected their form of Velvet Underground-infused drug rock. But on Welcome to the Monkey House, they escape the haze, with help from an unlikely quarter: producer Nick Rhodes, also known as the keyboard player for Duran Duran. Rhodes does an admirable job of making the Dandies bounce instead of drone. Monkey House recalls the mid-Nineties Duran Duran (rather than the pomp of the Rio era): chunky bass lines, electronic spins and blips, and wavy vocals. Duran's lead singer, Simon Le Bon, even gets into the act with a mind-boggling falsetto bit on "Plan A." Left intact is head Dandy Courtney Taylor-Taylor's wry fuck-off wit -- best utilized on the driving pop of "We Used to Be Friends." Sometimes rehab doesn't make you boring.

MATT HENDRICKSON
(RS 930, September 4, 2003)