Tracks
1. April Fool
2. Greetings From Isaacs Hill
3. Be Here Tonight
4. Please. Please, Please Let me Get what I want
5. Whatever It Is, Now
6. Don´t Turn Me Away
7. Last Of The Lovers
8. Absolutely No: 1
9. Heart Of The River
10. When The Morning Comes To Get Me
11. Green Shamrock Shore

Band:
Sulo
Duke of Honk
Magic Gunnarsson
Martin Tronsson
Johannes Nordell
Lars Karlsson
Pär Engman

Discography:
Blue Eyes Shouldn't be Cryin' (1993)
Honked (1994)
Good Time Girl (1995)
Need of Ammunition (1996)
Among the Nonbelievers (2000)
As your Green turns Brown (2001)
Shortplayer (2001)
Too Much is Always Better than Not Enough (2002)
That's the Juice I'm On (2003)
Black River Road (2004)
Up The Rock (2006)
Cookin (2008)
Most Likely (2008)

Guests:

Info

Released 28/1-2011
Reviewed 6/1-2011

Links:
myspace
legal records

This is the first album by a Swedish band that I review this still very new year. It is an album with a cover that features a guy with a guitar who walks into a barn. It may be the same barn in Hälsingland, Sweden, where they recorded this album, but it may also be a completely unrelated barn which has nothing to do with the recording of this album. Thing is that this cover does not convey anything that makes me interested in even the slightest way. And what about the name? The Diamond Dogs, stupid name and annoying and long title but fortunately that is not what we are to review here, it is the music.

What strikes me when I start to listen to this album is that it sound very old, kind of like the sixties or seventies rock rather than something that has been released during the second decade of the twentieth century. They say all was recorded live in this studio located in a barn in Bergsjö, Hälsingland, Sweden, and that may be what makes it sound a bit less clean and smooth soundwise. I would like to say that it has a slightly dirty sound, maybe some will call it authentic and true. What is for sure is that it has the feel of older rock that has been tried and tested before and gone out of fashion as well.

I can clearly say that I am not a fan of this album or this band, sure I have not heard the band before but listening to this I cannot imagine that they have much in their musical ways that can possibly interest me. I had a hard time even playing through this album from start to finish the first time and it has been really hard even to select in for playing even though I have known that I could throw it all away when being done.

It is quite hard though, to put a finger on what is the problem with this album, I think there is not one single thing but rather the whole. The sound is awful, much like having a sharp icicle falling from a roof and landing in your ear kind of feel. The cover looks dreadful like it was thought up by a dwarf who was stoned and drunk and stoned again. The vocalist seem to have swallowed at least three dishcloths before recording and the songs are as funny as a moulded cheese sandwich.

I may sound a bit harsh but that is just how it feels every time I am about to listen to, or listens to this album. It is sort of a tough effort even to select this band from the list of bands in the white music player that I have even though I know I can be rid of the pain. No, today I am pleased that I have never gotten to know this band before this as the pain would have been even worse then.

There is one word that actually describe what this album is about really well, it actually summarises it all in one word, which is boring. Boring is what this album is all about.

There is an album called Diamond Dogs by David Bowie which I can recommend over this album any day and that is without having even heard the album by Bowie, this effort by The Diamond Dogs is just that boring.

HHHHHHH

Label - Legal Records/Sound Pollution
Three similar bands - David Bowie/Slade/The Kinks
Rating: HHHHHHH
Reviewer: Daniel Källmalm