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Dress | Self-Important

CD, Muze/Konkurrent

Tekst: Manuel Aalbers

Publicatiedatum: 15 mei 2001

Dress consist of one guitarist, one drummer, and one keyboard player. This band from Amsterdam won AMP's Battle of the Bands in 1997, and shortly thereafter a single is released on Paradiso Records, which gets into the 'tipparade'. Two years and a couple of showcases in alternative radio shows later, a small record company from Haarlem called Muze shows interest. In April 2001 Muze release Dress' debut album. 'Self-important' is heavily influenced by the Boston sound, but a little bit of Sonic Youth and Pavement is also present. Above all, Dress has its own sound. Unmistakably, Dress is a guitar band. This is remarkable since Dress only feature one guitarist and no bass player. But it does feature a keyboard player. The combination of Boston guitar rock and the instruments might have to with this particular Dress sound. Dress actually used to feature a bass player, but - so the band say - their sound really evolved after he had left the band. The loss of the fourth member eventually became an advantage. 'Self-important' contains eleven songs. A couple of songs seemed a little boring to me the first time, but after I had played the record for at least ten times, each song revealed itself. 'Self-important' is a real grower, and those records are usually the best ones. From the pre-90s Dinosaur, Jr.-like opener 'Free Ride' and the Pavement- or Linoleum-hooked 'Kerosene' to the final song 'This is How I Am Today' (which reminds me of Placebo's serene work), 'Self-important' is filled with great songs, which can stand on their own as well as they do together. Personal favourites - both in music and lyrics - are 'Semi-Automatic' and 'Portrait of a Painter'.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/dress/self-important/281/
Meer Dress op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/dress