Dappled Cities
Granddance (Dangerbird)
By Emily Becker
Published: June 21st, 2007 | 1:14am
Australia’s Dappled Cities, the youthful quintet previously known as Dappled Cities Fly, packed their bags and moved to Los Angeles to put the finishing touches on Granddance, their second full-length album. In spite of the all-American locale and the presence of Jim Fairchild (ex-Grandaddy) and labelmate Peter Walker as producers, the record still bears the stamp of Down Under, as well as a deep nostalgia for the un-remembered ‘80s.
“Work it Out” bears a great debt to the Church, with sweeping keyboards and reverb-laced vocals. “Fire Fire Fire” treads more gently down a similar path, paving its way to a chorus with lush background vocals and echoey guitars. “Beach Song” is the record’s high point, beginning with an undercurrent of toms that anchor Tim Derricourt’s fey vocals. Throughout the record, the percussion is essential, as Hugh Boyce’s strong drumming ties each song together. “Watercourse” stands out as the only track on the album that allows the vocals to ring out clearly, sounding marvelously free without the heavy effects layered on many of the other songs. The album concludes with “Battleworn,” a waltz about a soldier who restores his dignity by ceasing to fight.
On “Work it Out” Derricourt sings, “Always finding something new / Is all I ask of you,” inadvertently addressing the record’s major weakness. Dappled Cities creates lovely, well-executed ear candy on Granddance. However, the band is clearly aiming for more than an album’s worth of pretty songs that could have been recorded in 1986, so it seems only fair to hold them to a higher standard.
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