Weekly > Reviews
Dogs - Turn Against This Land
Dogs are an angry snarling beast of five young men from various corners of England (one of them via Argentina) now based in London, who clearly take influence from The Jam but yet fuse that influence into a rasping ball of energy and noise that is without doubt their own and head and shoulders above the bands you’d probably deem to be their musical rivals.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen plenty of snarling and angry young bands come and go, we had The Libertines who arrived in a blaze of glory and departed in acrimony and rock and roll hedonism (admittedly not a bad way to go!), The Vines who gave us one brilliant album in Highly Evolved and then let themselves down with the follow up Winning Days.
We have also had over the last couple of years a real flurry of bands that were obviously influenced by the power chord energy of bands like The Jam who mixed it with clever pop twists and soul. Yep I’m talking about The Ordinary Boys, Razorlight, The Rakes, and The Paddingtons amongst others, in truth though I could add another thirty or forty bands to that list, so what makes Dogs any different to the rest?
Experiencing them live is probably the best way to answer that question, when I saw them recently at The Faversham in Leeds, they unleashed a ferocious burst of pure and raw musical energy into the performance, a crowd that on the whole was their out of curiosity was soon bowled over. Johnny Cooke stood on the barrier at the front for most of the gig, cramped under the low ceiling, like the rest of the band putting everything into it, sweat dripping from every pore, but most importantly not giving a shit because this was rock n’ roll and that’s supposed to be sweaty, awesome and muscular, which is exactly what this rabid animal that is Dogs was like live.
Hard to think that this hard rocking bunch of lads were the same ones that had been so affable when I’d interviewed them earlier on in the day, the good news is though that it’s not just live that they get that spark in their eyes, on record they are equally as voracious, yet still superbly tight and accomplished at all times. Turn Against This Land though isn’t a squeaky clean beautifully polished rare gem, it’s a rough diamond with most of it recorded in one take, so keen were the band to capture the live spirit on record. This sort of musical honesty has resulted in them making the album they wanted to make and that has made for an album that demands to be listened to.
- Dogs
- Turn Against This Land (2005)
- Category: Album
- Label: Island Records
- Reviewed by: Kev
- Published on: 27 Jul 2005
- Comments: 1
- Beat Surrender Rating:
Weblinks
Add to favouritesIt’s impossible to ignore the chiming guitars and aural assault chorus of London Bridge, likewise you get immediately pulled into Selfish Ways by the drum flurry that opens it and you’ll not forget the bitter love that spills out in the line “I’ll bring you firewood, but I will burn your house down�. If you think it’s just the singles that have impact then sorry to disappoint you, Donkey has a remorseful guitar line and a sonic finale that sounds like a slightly more pissed off My Bloody Valentine. It’s Not Right features franticly, jangly electric guitar, while at the other end of the scale you get the more melodic Tarred and Feathered.
One of the finest moments is the more reflective closing title track, it might be short and doesn’t have the noise level cranked up as other songs do on the album, but who says you always have to be loud to be passionate, this song ripples with it but in a more understated way. I couldn’t though review this album without mentioning Tuned To A Different Station, it’s the track that’s responsible for them getting the coveted Paul Weller support slot later this year and is still the best moment on the album for me. One of the best singles released this year, it’s a hurricane of guitar chords and drums blasting through the classic three minute pop song, a real anthem that stays with you long after you’ve last heard it.
While a lot of radio stations and TV music programmes have been slow to pick up on the promise of this band, showing them a distinct lack of support in comparison to their peers, don’t be surprised if come the end of the year they’ve blown the roof off of a venue near you, gained another clutch of fans at the same time and eventually go on to have the last laugh with this being one of the slow burner hit albums in 2005.
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Comment Permalink | Darkman said:
The Faversham gig was excellent as was the Cardiff gig 3 days previous. This band are more than good. They make me bounce! Great review. Bet they upstage Weller!
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