Album Review: Why You So Crazy by The Dandy Warhols

Why You So Lazy? The Dandy Warhols have embarked on a quest to strip their sound ever since This Machine was conceived. While never ones to stagnate sonic-wise, their decisions have been questionable lately. Their previous album ended up as a baked version of their usual selves, rarely taking off. Distortland felt quite vapid for a band whose main appeal is catchiness through straightforward grooves.

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The neo-psychedelic hijinks of The Dandy Warhols is an unexpected return in the year 2019. The veteran Portland four-piece, still fixated on tribute-esque psychedelic rock, has forged a sharper, more cohesive musical output on their latest album, Why You So Crazy. Caught within a bizarre cultural shift in the late '90s and early '00s, The Dandy Warhols found themselves the subject of a 2004 documentary— alongside "fellow" psych-fetishists The Brian Jonestown Massacre— Dig! They wrote songs called "Nietzsche," "Big Indian," "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth," and "Cool as Kim Deal" while other, even less fortunate song titles include "You Were the Last High" and "Hit Rock Bottom.

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After releasing two relatively restrained albums -- 2012's wistful This Machine and 2016's smoothly trippy Distortland -- in a row, it was inevitable that the Dandy Warhols would throw caution, and cohesion, to the wind. Granted, style-hopping is a more expected form of expression for this band than picking a single sound and sticking to it, but from its title to the '30s pastiche of its opening track "Fred and Ginger," Why You So Crazy quickly alerts listeners that this is the Dandy Warhols at their most eclectic. While they came up with plenty of ideas for their tenth album, too often it feels like they ran out of inspiration before they stopped recording.

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Having formed in 1994, The Dandy Warhols' 25 year-long discography is a mixed bag. In fact, most of their previous albums are themselves a mixed bag and the critical reaction to each effort has been, you've guessed it, a mixed bag. With new album 'Why You So Crazy?' the Portland band certainly live up to their legacy. The frustration with the group is that they punctuate this with flashes of greatness, moments that make fans punch the air and think, 'This time this is it'.

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