memoir<\/a> instead), it is an undeniably self-conscious comeback, manifesting the existential angst of middle age in sludgier-than-usual riffs, sudden switchups, and some of Dando\u2019s most self-reflective lyrics to date. \u201cThe strategy of life is that it\u2019s gone before you know it \/ And when you laid it on the line, baby, don\u2019t blow it,\u201d he coos over churning guitars and glacial percussion on \u201cTogetherness Is All I\u2019m After.\u201d Whether or not a Lemonheads comeback was highly anticipated, it seems that the stakes have never been higher for Dando and his bandmates.<\/p>\nEven when mulling over subjects as heavy as his own mortality and cultural relevance on Love Chant, Dando sounds more alive than a number of his better-adjusted fellow elder statesmen of indie rock. Given that every other rising act these days is indebted to either country or power-pop\u2014genres the Lemonheads championed long before they were de rigueur for alt-rock acts\u2014Dando could easily have produced a cheap, inconsequential piece of nostalgia-bait. Instead, Love Chant is the most experimental record of his career thus far, crystallizing his fluency in subgenres ranging from psychedelic rock (\u201cTogetherness is All I\u2019m After\u201d) to alt-folk (\u201cThe Key of Victory\u201d).<\/p>\n
Most of Dando\u2019s wildest swings on Love Chant pay off. Arguably the album\u2019s catchiest tune, the twangy singalong \u201cCell Phone Blues\u201d proves how well his hooks hold up when he leans all the way into his country affectations. On the other end of the spectrum, the tape-scratching jam \u201cMarauders\u201d manages to fashion a hodgepodge of brass horns, moog synthesizer, harmonium, and nonsensical babbling into a genuinely majestic-sounding finale. It\u2019s semi-ironic that Dando wonders whether there\u2019s \u201canything left for [him] to say about shit\u201d on the latter track; its arrangement, among the most delightfully quirky in the Lemonheads\u2019 catalog, is indicative of a creative who\u2019s plenty dried-out but far from washed-up.<\/p>\n
But Dando hasn\u2019t quit all of his old habits since we last heard from him. Like every Lemonheads record other than It\u2019s a Shame About Ray, Love Chant occasionally lacks the discipline and focus Dando\u2019s more than capable of, resulting in some snoozers. The narcotic swirl of guitars on \u201cBe-In\u201d seems to challenge even Dando to keep his eyes open\u2014his incoherent mumbling might as well be a sleep-talk tape. He sounds far more awake on the mildly catchy title track and \u201cWild Thing,\u201d but that doesn\u2019t matter much, as he has nothing interesting to say on either. It\u2019s frustrating that the lyrics aren\u2019t just shallow but also boring, as Dando\u2019s talent for writing good \u201cbad\u201d lyrics is truly impressive. (I\u2019m thinking now of that line from \u201cBeing Around\u201d\u2014you know, \u201cIf I was a booger, would you blow your nose?\u201d At least that was, uh, thought-provoking?) Dando may be a reputed master of \u201cthrowaway charm,\u201d but \u201cLove Chant,\u201d \u201cWild Thing,\u201d and \u201cBe-In\u201d are just throwaways. <\/p>\n
That said, there\u2019s plenty on Love Chant for fans of the Lemonheads\u2019 classics to, well, love. The not-so-aptly named opener, \u201c58 Second Song,\u201d kicks things off with big, dumb power chords and half-dumb, half-profound aphorisms that typify the band\u2019s best pop-rock dynamos. Centered around the undeniable sort of hooks that\u2019ve always come easily to Dando, the grungy anthem \u201cDeep End\u201d and bratty kiss-off \u201cIn the Margin\u201d could easily pass for \u201990s outtakes if not for Dando\u2019s time-worn baritone. On the former, veteran Lemonheads collaborators Juliana Hatfield and J Mascis respectively contribute dynamic harmonies and an acidic electric guitar solo. \u201cI don\u2019t know any more than I did all those years before,\u201d Dando admits on the urgent, introspective closing track \u201cRoky.\u201d Love Chant leaves no doubt that he has a ways to go on both his personal and songwriting journeys, but it proves that he\u2019s already well on his way, looking to the past to push his sound\u2014and self\u2014forward. After so many years of stasis, that\u2019s a triumph in its own right. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The hard truth is, no matter how many albums we review for Paste each year, there are always…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-365443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}