I premiered the first two singles from dollys' tense here earlier this month along with an interview with guitarist and principal songwriter, Jeff Lane. In answering a question about the band's experience at Fidelitorium Studios in North Carolina, Jeff said, "[bassist / engineer / producer] Erik [Kase Romero] and [engineer / mixer / masterer (?)] Timmy Pannella were able to come up with a very intuitive way of setting up the studio prior to recording so that anyone could experiment with weird instruments and ideas without wasting much time setting gear up or putting gear away. Through their hard work and planning, we were able to make the most of our time there and have as much fun as possible."
As I listen to tense, that sense of forethought and planning by all of dollys comes through. The songs here are full of amazing sonic details, but they remain tight and economical. Only two of the songs on tense even crack three minutes, and the band do not waste a second of the listener's time.
Opener "too bad" moves from staccato pop verses to a flowing, wide-open chorus to a Pet Sounds-esque bridge over the course of its two-and-a-half minutes. And, even with all of that going on, the song feels perfectly wrapped up in a nice, little, pop package.
Drummer Natalie Newbold's vocals do a little call and response with Lane's guitar and Romero's bass during the verse on the relatively epic (3:13) "collapse." It's a song about someone who's constantly playing the victim, and the sarcasm in Newbold's voice when she sings, "How much more weight can you take, before you collapse?" is barely detectable.
For me, "girl" is one of the real triumphs of tense. I was lucky enough to hear a few early demos of the songs that would make up the album; and, while I liked the version of "girl" I heard just fine, I had no idea what the song would become.
dollys clearly had a vision for it, though. It's a simple song built around a single chord, but Newbold's vocals are right on-point. Everything about the arrangement -- the harmonies, the rolling drums, the keys, Romero's bass -- is perfection. And not to be a downer here, but the line "my dreams didn't work out for you" is a tough one to hear following the dissolution of the band.
"sugartooth" sounds almost jazzy before it slides into its poppy and singalongable chorus. "idiot" is another example of the way in which the music feels almost like another singer in the band, punctuating Newbold's vocals with help from Lisa Romero on various keys.
There's a -- I don't know. Tropical, maybe? -- vibe on "on the mend." And "here I am, making plans, when I'm fairly aware that everything seems sweet until it ends" is another line that carries more weight on a final album.
dollys go for a bit of 90s-style power pop / alt rock on "another thing coming." Newbold's voice often reminds me of Juliana Hatfield or Veruca Salt's Nina Gordon and Louise Post, and that works well here.
Things go a little easier on the album's final three songs. The buttoned-up "jukebox" gets a little spacey in places. "grow up" is bouncy and Beatle-esque. Beautiful album-closer "tenant" is appropriately melancholy. "Don't you worry about me. I'll be a tenant of each dream."
tense is twenty-six minutes of meticulously-crafted pop music. I've said this before when referring to dollys, but it takes a lot of discipline to make two- and three-minute songs that contain so much. dollys were a band that had a real vision for what they wanted to achieve. A song like "girl" shows that in spades.
Some of the songs here contain moments that are hard to listen to for those of us who loved this band, but over at dollys' Bandcamp page, they say, "we made this record when we were happy. we hope it makes you happy, too." And I have no doubt that tense will, ultimately, make many, many people happy. We should all be lucky enough to say we did that. Thanks, dollys.
tense is out now on Sniffling Indie Kids. A dollar from every sale of the album will go to support the ACLU.
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