Stand Upright In A Cool Place

Uncut - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he focus is on folky three-part harmonies and baroque Americana on the epic opener 'Tripped And Fell' and the Gram Parsons-like 'Shadows'."

Stand Upright in a Cool Place is the fifth studio album from British three piece Dodgy and comes some eleven years after 2001's Real Estate. Recorded during the summer of 2011 at a farmhouse in Malvern, UK, the album sees the band's sound mature while delivering one of their most fully realised works to date.|

Despite producing one of the most enduring Brit-pop hits of the mid-90s, Hounslow three-piece Dodgy were always firmly a mid-table act during the Cool Britannia era. Occupying the same disposable Beatles-esque pastiche pop territory as Cast, the Seahorses, and the Supernaturals, they never really threatened to challenge the genres heavyweights, and after frontman Nigel Clark left to pursue a solo project, split to a wave of indifference at the turn of the century. Over a decade on and following a multitude of reunion tours, the original lineup are back with their fifth studio album, Stand Upright in a Cool Place, hoping to improve on their also-ran status. Those who felt radio staple "Good Enough" straddled the line between jaunty and annoying a little too closely will be pleased to hear that the now forty-something trio have left the summery brass pop behind in favor of an intimate autumnal direction which recalls the harmony-laden folk of Fleet Foxes and the West Coast country-rock of the Eagles. At first, its a pleasant surprise, with the soul-searching psychedelic folk of "Tripped and Fell," the self-empowering warm acoustics of "What Became of You?," and the high-spirited Americana of "We Try" all providing an authentic Laurel Canyon-inspired opening trio. But as the constant wave of delicate fingerpicking hooks, sluggish soft-brushed rhythms, and wistful melancholic melodies enters the mid-way stage, you begin to long for something just a little bit punchier. The world-weary campfire folk of "Back of You" lacks the bite of its Tory-baiting lyrics, "Did It Have to Be This Way" is perhaps the blandest breakup song youll hear all year, and "Find a Place" is a meandering attempt to re-create the wistful alt-country of Bon Iver. Dodgy should be applauded for refusing to simply pick up where they left off, but Stand Upright in a Cool Places failure to build on its early promise suggests theyre unlikely to climb into the Brit-pop elite any time soon. ~ Jon OBrien