The Dodos – No Color sounds like a Jack Kerouac novel. The Dodo’s rambling folk-rock has always journeyed through the proverbial countryside and each of the songs on the record have an earthy consistency to them…
The Dodos – No Color
No Color sounds like a Jack Kerouac novel. The Dodo’s rambling folk-rock has always journeyed through the proverbial countryside, and as a nine-to-five river engineer, I regularly find both my mind and day-to-day activities somewhere between the mountains and the sea. In this regard, the group’s latest record has been a delightful companion on such journeys, and like any good adventure, it needs to be shared to extract its full value.
“I cannot sleep, I cannot think, I cannot dream” pines the hauntingly triumphant ‘Sleep’. If you are losing sleep over someone, you really need to chase them halfway across the country and tell them. The track epitomises the waiting and wanting and getting and losing and forgetting that is young romance. But “this ship is going under” (‘Going Under’); and love is an ocean where tragic submergence can be an unfortunate reality.
But when you fall off your horse, the only sensible course of action is to get back on it. The chase continues in ‘Hunting Season’ – “you go be a girl/I’ll go searching for food” – a collaborate effort being the only true way forward. But love is fragile, “nothing’s permanent/I thought you know” (‘When Will You Go?’)
Each of the songs on the record have an earthy consistency to them; musically, through the thriving percussion underlying the juggled acoustic and rock elements; and also in its vulnerable storytelling. No Colour is a cohesive tale through the heartland and the depths of the human spirit.
It’s no surprise that The Dodos always play at Leigh Sawmill when they tour our fine country. To those in the know, the Sawmill is in all probability New Zealand’s most rustic venue. It’s a step back in time, just like this record. Hear the album, but if you get the chance to see them live – go.
Written by Theo Sangster 18 July 2011.
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