It may have taken us Brits a little longer than our US cousins to catch on, but make no mistake, the UK leg of the new-wave revival is finally on. Franz Ferdinand kicked-off art-rock’s return with their militarily starched guitars and jackboot thud; the fantastic Grand National have rediscovered The Police’s back catalogue and now dapper Scots Dogs Die In Hot Cars have raided the early ‘80s cupboard and found a discarded bric-a-brac of wobbly vocals, crisp guitars and fabulously pouty pop.
A 35-minute, hi-camp tribute to the complete works of Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, XTC, Talk Talk, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Joe Jackson and Squeeze, “Please Describe Yourself” is a thoroughly British Record. Full of kitchen sink observations and twitchy, buttocks clenched, chest out vocals, it is eccentricity personified. Yet, as with the best moments of all the acts they’ve borrowed from, it’s eccentricity of the most loveable, sing-along kind.
Calling in producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley to help them shape their idiosyncratic melodies and ‘zany’ art-school dropout perspective was perhaps their smartest move. Having actually worked with XTC, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Madness and Talking Heads, Langer and Winstanley know how to pull off the David Byrne harmonies on “Apples & Oranges” and “Paul Newmans’s Eyes”. They also manage to ensure that the cheeky off-kilter belt of “Lounger” and up-tight SKA of “I Love You ‘Cause I Have To” came out as boisterous knees-up not naff parody.
Thankfully, “Please Describe Yourself” treads the minuscule line between irritating nonsense and joyous, life-affirming nonsense, with dignity, aplomb and an ever-so-slightly neurotic swagger. And thanks to big irresistible choruses, like that of the mighty piano rocker “Godhopping”, it swaggers to a lorry load of fantastic pop.
For sure the US new new-wave, as defined by The Strokes is way cooler - and with the best will in the world there’s nothing even remotely cool about Dogs Die In Hot Cars. But if “Please Describe Yourself” is a hint of things to come, the British version will be bloody good fun.
