Album Review: Dawn Landes - Sweetheart Rodeo

Album Review: Dawn Landes - Sweetheart Radio
Review with track-by-track impressions by Danny Crombie - November 13, 2009

I’ll have to be simple and blunt with this one, maybe I’ve heard too many good records recently but as much as I want to get into this I really can’t “get” it.

Dawn Landes' record Sweetheart Rodeo is all very nice and very Regina Spektor or whatever flavour of the month female artist you want to say but it’s just too commercial friendly.

Listen to "Romeo" and I dare you to tell me that it couldn’t fit perfectly into an Ikea, Persil or Juno-fucking-two soundtrack. Maybe I’ve been jaded by Baddies’ debut album but this whole nicey nice thing grates on me so badly.

I want to reiterate that I really want to like this, the name of the record got me first of all with a reference to one of my favourite records and favourite album covers but it just feels a bit lost and as though Landes is trying too hard to make this record a hit before personal nourishment.

Landes’ voice is absolutely beautiful but the first two tracks are forgettable and track 3 sounds like a bad Beatles song (and I HATE The Beatles)…..but wait, around 2 ½ minutes into Love it starts getting ugly with phasers and shit and sounds sooooo good, wow – there’s hope yet!

It gets better from now on and "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" is pretty goddamn good, it has a rhythm that feels dirty and nasty like a runaway horse in the desert, it’s fucking good.

Eclectic is a word that is now being thrown around in this record and the next track, "Clown" is a sombre electro driven dream that just brings you into a trance. I love stuff like this and am starting to get into the album. I don’t think it will be on constant rotation but I’d definitely give it a listen once in a blue moon.

"Wandering Eye" gets back into shit-kickin’ country rhythm and is very nice, I’m still not 100% into this girl. "Little Miss Holiday" takes it down a bit and moves her back onto a Juno soundtrack but it’s not as annoying as "Romeo", this one is like when they used Belle and Sebastian on there, not one of those annoying songs like the Moldy Peaches but an actual good one.

"Dance Area" is probably the best song so-far on the record, it’s crafted finely and really takes the album up a notch. When you get this far in on a record there’s a lot of filler but I’m finding it all to get better further on.

If you read my recent Chuck Ragan review you’ll have learnt that Pedal Steel is my Kryptonite - "Brighton" hits me and forces me to drift off into joy and happiness and makes me forget about my horrible tooth-ache this morning. I could listen to this song on repeat for a few days.

"All Dressed In White" is the final song on the album and begins with what sounds like backwards bleeps set to an Evens’ song which is good because I love The Evens. The song sort of comes and goes and leaves you wanting more if it. I have to listen to it 3 times to take it in.

To sum it all up I would have to say this is a difficult record for me to like. Landes has a really great voice and her good songs are really good but it feels as though there’s something missing or as though she’s just trying too hard to be like someone else.

I applaud her for making such a varied and interesting record and create such a debate in my head for the entirety of an album is a hard thing to do. I usually set my mind from the first track and I certainly didn’t do that here.

Dawn Landes’ will gain the audience she deserves for this record but I don’t think I can join them just yet. Maybe I just don’t understand it and I feel pretty unhappy that I can’t.