Feb 17 Peer Review: "Free Write" – The Dogs

Written by Steve Barman. Posted in Detroit Concerts

We’re attempting again to do group reviews of albums while listening to them for the first time. We believe this will capture the purity of the sound first gracing out ears. All of the review is anonymous words from our mouths while listening. We’re calling this musical experiment “Peer Review”. Four people helped us with the Peer Review this week, if you’re interested in participating in a future Peer Review, please comment below.

The Dogs – Free Write I should point out that this album is completely free via The Dogs website. The Review:

This sounds so 90s. I don’t mean that in a bad way. The nineties were a great time for music. That’s the cool thing now too, to sound like the 90s. You could use this song to make a montage of sad people looking out of windows in the rain. You could put this song over the video for GreenDay’s time of your life. I think this is what Lou Barlow thinks that he sounds like. Soft and melodic with a hard edge. I like it. They nailed that crescendo part. It’s inoffensive. I like that screaming part. It’s not just screaming, done in a good way. I’m not a big Replacements fan but I hear a bit of that in there. This is such a nineties throwback I’m expecting a wacky voicemail message at the end or an audio clip from Reality Bites.

Is this Enya? I don’t really dig her singing. This could be a totally different artist. The first song is good and that’s how they trick you into listening to the rest of the song. She’s got a sweet voice, I just don’t dig the song at all. She sounds a bit like Claudia Gonson from the Magnetic Fields. This song is a much better use of her voice. This is the song that you’re supposed to put on the mix cd right? I like this song a lot. I like a lot of songs that have a male/female duet. Musically it songs good, but the chords are a bit generic… There it goes. This song sounds a bit like early Belle and Sebastian. Now it sounds like Sunny Day Real Estate. This horn part is great. I like the way the fret movement on the the guitar strings sounds, I don’t know what it’s called. This album is eeking it’s way up to a 4! The screams are getting a little emo torture for me, but they’re still recorded well. Is this supposed to be a drum solo or is the cd skipping? I liked that song but it seemed like the same formula as the last song. Kinda noodly at one part, then the verse, then the screamy part, then the repeaty part.

Is this part a new band? This sounds like the Knife. I like these vocals. It’s like a Gregorian chant, kind of creepy. Am I going to be worshipping Satan by the end of this? This part makes me think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the guys slap themselves in the head with wood. I feel like the songs are gettting better as the album gets further in. It’s more of a summery album than a winter. Some of them have that very light feel, but not all of them. This is getting very interesting. Is that a banjo? Wow, they are way too talented to be a really young band. This is a song they’d really rock out live I’m sure. I got a little bit of an Arcade Fire vibe from this band. This isn’t something I would buy, but I would have no problem seeing them live. Nice space disonance.

Sounds a little like the Microphones, but they’re not seemed trapped into always sounding lowfi. I think they’re very conscious in how they want their vocals to sound, they don’t over use the vocal asthetic. Same with the horns, they use them just the right amount without going over board. That second song was kind of a non-sequiter because they have a very cohesive song. This is kinda like older Bright Eyes. It’s very indie rock, but it’s very accousticy, and there’s a lot of things going on in it. That’s good vocal work. These parts make me think of modest mouse. These guys know their last 20 years of indie rock, that’s for sure, and they use the good parts. This song is making me want to ease the plugs out of the back of the speakers. This sounds like half the Neil Young songs I’ve ever heard. I hate Neil Young. Is this song called “The Ghost Of Civil war Veterans”? At least this song isn’t in the middle of the album. They should have called it a bonus track so that you don’t feel like it tainted the album.

Ratings (anonymously randomized): 3.75 , 4, 3.5, 4 = 3.8 out of 5
The Dogs on Myspace

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