Dengue Fever “Dengue Fever”

Rating:3

Dengue fever is a mosquito-transmitted viral disease commonly occurring in Southeast Asia. It seems to me that this Los Angeles-based band is attempting to recreate the unpleasantness of this disease in their music.

This jazzy, Cambodian-style psychedelic rock sextet plays a variety of instruments that combine to create a uniquely large sound. Unfortunately, the product of this chaos is quite unappealing.

Most of the songs on this CD consist of a Cambodian woman singing with an extremely shrill and yodeling voice in the Khmer language. She bellows over blaring, funky-sounding instruments that are less than enjoyable to listen to. This occurrence is especially evident in the first and seventh tracks, titled “Lost in Lads” and “New Year’s Eve,” respectively.

Track number six on the album, called “Thanks-a-Lot” is sung by a male band member, with the shrieky-sounding female doing background vocals. Even though the shrillness of the female vocals was less apparent, this song still proved to be just as tormenting as the rest of the record. The repetitive nature of the melody reminded me of a song created for a small child to annoy their parents with.

I found the least displeasing songs on this album were the purely instrumental pieces such as “Ethanopium.” I was able to detect just how talented Dengue Fever is as a band composed exclusively of musical instruments.

Overall, I was rather unimpressed with this album due to its random assortment of sounds that too often produced loud, and sometimes irritating music. Because this band is undoubtedly a talented group of musicians, the result of this record is truly unfortunate.

— Annie Krumhardt

Dave Gahn “Paper Monsters”

Rating: 6

Dave Gahan, frontman of Depeche Mode, looks like he has a full head of hair. This is a pity: His debut solo album doesn’t reflect the look of its singer: “Paper Monsters” feels like a mellow comb-over of sounds and lyrics that have been heard before, only showing patches of healthy originality.

As easy as it is to point out flaws, it is with even more ease to say that any musician is going to borrow from someone else, or at the very least, be heavily influenced by it.

In this case, this is a strong compliment: Gahan’s best moments are the Depeche-inspired opening track “Dirty Sticky Floors;” the moody “A Little Piece,” the best song of the album, is reminiscent of Peter Gabriel’s temperamental work, and Gahan’s own voice, a rough instrument that compliments the likes of Mick Jagger.

This album reminds me of Jagger’s most recent solo effort, “Goddess in the Doorway,” an album that combines many sounds and moods into a great record.

This album borrows from a palette of other artists, provided Gahan doesn’t use other high-status artists. The combination of 1980s grunge and 1990s industrial mood music are both creatively linked, and sometimes, Gahan pulls it off with great results.

Unfortunately, the key word here is “sometimes.” A fair amount of songs, such as “Bottle Living,” doesn’t have any lyrical depth or a unique sound.

“Paper Monsters” reminds me of the multi-layered album “Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me” by the Cure. The two albums have a grungy feel mixed with slight moments of romanticism, though both albums suffer from only a handful of songs worth listening to. Both albums arrive at similar conclusions: Good, but not great.

— Ryan Curell