Maddy Costa 

Dum Dum Girls: Only in Dreams – review

A tragedy inspired the Dum Dum Girls' new album, says Maddy Costa, but that doesn't stop it sounding lemony fresh
  
  


In the Shangri-Las' 1965 hit I Can Never Go Home Anymore, the song's fictional mother dies, and Mary Weiss unleashes a heart-piercing cry of "Mama!" A similar wail underscores the second album from Dum Dum Girls, a kind of latter-day Shangri-Las. Kristin Gundred wrote the lyrics following her mother's death, tracing every mood from shock to sorrow to impatience for the return of normality. On Bedroom Eyes and In My Head, Gundred no less throatily mourns the absence of her husband while she's on tour. With themes like these, the album could be maudlin, but that's not the Dum Dum style. Two droning numbers aside, this is wall-of-sound indiepop at its lemony brightest – and whereas their debut album, I Will Be, was scuffed by its home recording, every guitar riff, snappy rhythm and surging chorus here is polished to a gleam.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*