Dick Diver is one of the latest “flavors of the month” in the indie rock scene. We’ll see if they’ll make their way and have a long-term career in music, or just be a hit-and-run type of band. But in the meantime, let’s enjoy their cool record, entitled “Melbourne, Australia” that just came out in March 2015. What makes me think that Dick Diver will last for a while is the fact that many of their songs aren’t based on gimmicks. They’re solid songs based on memorable melodies and strong chord progressions (the folky Boomer Class). If the main male singer Rupert Edwards usually takes the lead, there are a few magic moments where drummer Stephanie Hughes, aka the girl in the band, picks up the mic and leads her buddies, or does some great chorus enhancements. Leftovers is one of the best songs of the record, really in the following of bands like Alvvays or Mazzy Star (click on the headphones icon on top of this article to hear the track). Another good sign that Dick Diver will last is the powerful influence that we can hear from such great songwriters as Tom Petty (the single Waste the Alphabet). One-hit-wonders usually have a hit with a few lucky notes or a cool sound. But such as Vampire Weekend or Yeasayer made it with a couple of cool albums then people quickly lost interest, switched to Foals and Austra. Indie rock stardom is a tough place to stay in. Anyways, what we can’t (and don’t want to) take away from the Australian band is their great collection of 12 songs that have a lazy but intelligent feel to it (Percentage Points). The only weak moments are the ones where the music isn’t tight enough (the short instrumental Resist) or the singing offkey (Beat Me Up (Talk To a Consellor)) even though there is some reminiscence of corny songs by The Velvet Underground. Dick Diver also improved a lot since their last effort. They sound much better than on their first records. At the end of the day, “Melbourne, Australia” has nothing exceptional, but is still pretty cool music to relax your brain on. DICK DIVER Melbourne, Florida (Chapter Music, 2015) -Genre: indie pop -In the same spirit than Alvvays, Joel Plaskett, Velvet Underground Go to Dick Diver’s Facebook fanpage Go to Chapter Music’s YouTube channel Réagissez à cet article / Comment this article commentaires / comments
