Dead Chic are not easy to categorise. The Franco-English group have been around a couple of years now, and the only word I can emphatically say links everything they’ve put out is “intense.” With a capital “I”, if you will.
Serenades & Damnation is their debut long player and ‘Hedonista‘ brings the record crashing in – a bit Americana, a little garage punk, a tad proggy in places and a massive slab of cinematographic grandeur. Always vast, sweeping soundscapes actually. ‘Fortune‘ is next up, somewhat akin to if Nathaniel Rateliff decided to soundtrack a Sergio Leone Western. It’s a huge sounding record, a little like the monumental aura conveyed by The Black Keys on El Camino, and then they go and bamboozle us with ‘¿Cuánto cuesta?‘, literally translated to English as “How much does it cost?“, which is straight out of left field, incorporating a bit of rap into the mix, perhaps something like a hybrid of Rico‘s ‘Dawn Raid‘ and Beck‘s ‘Loser‘, though it’s more on the dark side of the former than the tongue-in-cheek pop sensibilities of the latter. It’s a gripping song, and is followed by the smooth, jazzy tones of Turkish female singer Tuğçe Şenoğul, in a climactic balladic duet with Dead Chic frontman Andy Balcon. It’s full of mystique and entirely seductive.
‘Romance‘ is all driving rhythms and angelic vocals that juxtapose effortlessly and brilliantly with Balcon, and then everything goes all Spanish guitar on ‘Manchester‘, its ominous sounding whispered vocal being slightly reminiscent of Pixies frontman Black Francis on the verses of ‘Tame‘. It’s arresting and unsettling all at once. You’d never guess these guys were from Europe, incidentally – their sound has America written all over it, especially on the outstanding ‘Paris‘, which evokes memories of those aforementioned classic Leone Westerns more than any other track here.
‘All Seasons Change‘, by complete contrast, again, is dreamy and whimsical, before the stripped back, slow-building blues-rock of ‘Pain Love Joy‘ and the hypnotic, percussion-led ‘Souvenir‘, which almost feels like you’re being inducted into the Dead Chic cult at some bizarre initiation ceremony, Balcon’s words delivered mantra-like and with impassioned fervour.
‘Know Your Worth‘ begins with a brooding backdrop, accentuated with ‘Delilah‘ like keyboard stabs, eventually erupting into a cacophony of noise to complete the album and leave you breathless, unable to say any word except “Whoa!” for a few minutes.
What a great album.
Serenades & Damnation is out on 15th November via Upton Park.
