#18 - On the album "She's the Dutchess, He's the Duke" by The Dutchess & The Duke

The recent (by which I mean last... six or so years) revitalization of the 60's style pop/rock song as art form is a double edged whammy. It has given us some great bands: The Clientele, Belle & Sebastian. Some okay bands: The Minders, Apples In Stereo. And some downright awful bands: I can only think of that awful "Delilah" song by whoever does it. People have slowly caught on that guitars plus melody minus total rockage equals "quality" or at least the perception of "quality". The main problem is that more often than not the actual songwriting, lyrically and, more importantly, melocially falters and the crap floats to the top as it is usually written by people far prettier who are merely following the trends 30 seconds later than the real deal and 30 seconds earlier than the rest of the world.
The Dutchess & The Duke, a band comprising of basically three people, using only acoustic guitars, a little electric and hand percussion, sound like the Rolling Stones. The important fact of this is that they do not sound like they are trying to sound like the Rolling Stones. They just do. The attitude and voicing of this music could easily fall apart as phony or weak but instead it's a major strength of it. It lacks the funky swagger of half of the Stones material, but retains the dark folk sexy danger of some of their best material, coming off like an alternate version of The Stones' album "Aftermath".
Lyrically this come on equally sexy/dangerous in that 60's rock and roll way. This is not meant as a diss as they pull it off, but the main pull of the album is a) the super lo-fi production which only accentuates the pure hooks in these songs and the amazing natural harmonies that tend to blossom in each chorus.
Is it a flawless album? No. It tends to drag on a bit in the latter half and as such it can be top heavy, but the top is so heavy that it doesn't matter. The strength of the first half of the album largely overshadows the second half which isn't so much bad as it is just not as good as what came before. Will they become big? The sound of the group is almost too authentic to get that way, but there is a modern bent to their sound and the structure of the songs that makes them more than just a "retro" act. So in response to will they become big: Who cares?
Grade: B+