"Too True" Is A Lyrical Punk Success

Sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint the Dum Dum Girls. For instance, when newcomers to the band see the quartet’s bloody red lipstick and sky-high, fish-netted legs, they may be surprised to hear that the group has drawn comparisons to Best Coast and the Vivian Girls. Even fans who have been listening to the band longer may approach their latest effort, “Too True”, with a little uncertainty. After all, the L.A. outfit has served up two very different sonic dishes since their 2010 debut. Their first, “I Will Be,” was a sweet and edgy hit of youthful love songs. However, their next, “Only In Dreams,” was written following the death of lead singer/songwriter Dee Dee Penny’s mother. The result was a brooding concoction of tortured tracks bubbling over the flame of garage band grit. Which Dum Dum Girls show up on “Too True”?

From the opening words of the album, it appears to be the former. With lyrics like “We touched beneath our skin / right down to the bare wires”, it sounds like “Too True” might ascend to the adolescent heights of the love songs on “I Will Be”. But suddenly Dee Dee hurls a studded, black-leather-gripped wrench into the listeners’ expectations, sinisterly proclaiming that she belongs to “the cult of love.” Eerily tinkling synths surround ghostly backing vocals in what opens up to be a sublime smack of opulent yet lo-fi gothic rock.

The rest of the album proves that the grungier subject matter isn’t an anomaly. If “Evil Blooms” sounds like something out of a dreamy punk rocker’s diary (“Evil blooms just like a flower / the world stares down from her high tower”) that’s because it is. Even though “Too True” doesn’t always sound like a punk album, the feeling persists that that’s where Dee Dee was trying to push it. Among the record’s inspirations, she cites “the punk poets Patti Smith and Lou Reed (who, like many, I consider to be my spiritual parents).” She even recorded pieces of the record in true DIY punk fashion—utilizing a makeshift recording studio in her bedroom. As a result of Dee Dee’s efforts, “Too True” ends up following closer in the dreamy and disturbed footsteps of “Only In Dreams,” if not always musically, then definitely lyrically.

Dee Dee’s impressive knack for lyrics brings “Too True” together. Even songs that feel sonically distanced from the album’s rockier trend are masterfully tied back by her pen. This is the case with “Are You Okay?,” a moody, pop-rock track that sounds as if it could’ve been lifted from Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours.” It’s a feat that really does exemplify her punk spirit, and it helps the band evade the “60’s girl band revival” category that they so loathe (would The Ronettes ever chirp, “My face is numb / I know just what I’m doing, but what is this I’m pursuing?”). Though “Trouble is My Name” may sound like a soft rock ballad that harks back to the band’s googly-eyed origins, Penny’s lyrics flip the script. Entertaining the adolescent sound only to sinisterly subvert it, she states like a creepy horror movie child, “Trouble is my name. Is it your name too?”

The album’s highest moments, however, are products of both incisive lyrics and grungy atmosphere. That’s exactly what happens on “Lost Boys and Girls Club,” the peak of the band’s post-punk garage groove. There’s something utterly cathartic about hearing Penny purr, “Your eyes are black X’s of hate and of hexes” as shredding electric guitars and abundant cymbals misbehave in the background. Similar is “Rimbaud Eyes,” a track that name-drops 19th century poet Arthur Rimbaud. The song feels like a manifesto, partially because Penny means the title phrase to be a compliment. This is despite—and definitely because of—the fact that the man was a drunken libertine who died young after living a life that shunned moral conventions. If that isn’t punk, what is?

Since their 2008 debut, the Dum Dum Girls have been walking a tightrope, balancing a stock of influences comprised equally of ’60s Ronettes pop and ’80s garage rock. “Too True” sees them largely favoring the bombastic guitar riffs and blaring synths of a post-punk revival band, but not by totally discarding their melodious girl-group origins. The result is an album that does feel inspired, but also slightly confused. When the songs aren’t really good, they’re still alright (see “Under These Hands” and “Little Minx”), but the next time Dee Dee Penny channels her spirit mother, Patti Smith, it might be a good idea to ask her to stick around just a little longer.

—Staff writer Caleb M. Lewis can be reached at clewis01@college.harvard.edu.