Shame, Shame

After a host of acclaimed underground records, it can worry the devoted fans of a band to hear that their heroes are roping in an outside influence for their latest effort: it smacks of one last throw of the dice, a seemingly blatant attempt to snatch some mainstream attention or call it quits. It might have worried followers of Philadelphian rockophiles Dr. Dog then, when they heard that producer Rob Schnapf had been signed up to sit at the helm of the ban d’s latest long-player, after the pure psychedelic wondrousness of their previous efforts. The likes of 2005’s Easy Beat and 2008’s Fate would delight serious fans of the three titantic Bs of the Sixties and Seventies – The Beatles, Beach Boys and The Band – plus anyone who likes their music sounding like it was recorded on vintage equipm ent by men with beards. So why on earth would they want to mess with the formula?

It’s hard to believe that Dr. Dog have been around for so long. Shame, Shame is actually their sixth album. For a long while, their efforts simply got lost amidst the huge array of “just okay” indie-pop bands. Their previous release, however, 2008’s Fate, finally started breaking away from the indistinct indie trade fair, and now Shame, Shame successfully completes the rupture.