Produced by piano man Ben Folds, the album is a stripped down version of the Goth/punk cabaret that we've come to expect from the Dresden Dolls. Piano and strings are the main instruments used here.
Unfortunately, the songs are fairly unimaginative. We get neither the perky yet perverted tracks that we would get from the Dolls or anything wholly divergent that we'd hope for from a solo record. In essence, it's almost as though Palmer and Folds have been sleepwalking through the recording process.
Not until the 10th track, "Oasis", does Palmer show signs of life.
Palmer's voice has never been the strongest or the prettiest, but with the Dolls her shortcomings have been masked by the dark lyrical content and the quirky instrumentation. With the more minimalist nature of this album those weaknesses are glaring for all the world to see.
There are some brief glimmering moments of hope. Palmer's staccato delivery on "Runs In the Family" is original and the horn flourish on "Leeds United" is spectacular. However, those moments are far too few and far too far between.
A new Dresden Dolls album would have been far more welcomed than this album which is little more than the Dresden Dolls boring and disinfected cousin.
The question should really be: who killed Amanda Palmer's solo record.
Best tracks: "Leeds United", "Oasis"
Amanda Palmer plays the Mod Club in Toronto on November 30th.
Track listing for Who Killed Amanda Palmer:
- Astronaut
- Runs In the Family
- Ampersand
- Leeds United
- Blake Says
- Strength Through Music
- Guitar Hero
- Have To Drive
- What's the Use of Wondr'in'
- Oasis
- The Point of It All
- Another Year
5.0
2 praise/complaints:
I have to disagree with you on this one, I love the album, (I just did a post about her as well), I am admitedly not familiar with The Dresden Dolls so I don't have much to compare it too, but from a new listener perspective I found this album enthralling, she has such a tone of fragility behind her power that I couldn't help but fall in love with it, I though it was a gteat solo debut...
Ahhhh, that's the beauty of music. We can come to it from different prospectives and value the art form completely differently.
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