Music album review: The Dum Dum Girls

Fronting a guitar band, Dee Dee Penny must surely tire of being measured against the rock chicks who have preceded her. But it’s inevitable that listeners will compare her to Chrissie Hynde, of the Pretenders: there’s the same drawl and the similarly wry lyrics. Even the sudden chord changes, and driving rhythms, smack of the Pretenders. And then there’s the image: Penny has adopted the black bangs and crude fringe Hynde has sported since the 1970s.

There are other influences, too. ‘Rimbaud Eyes,’ one of the best tracks on Too True, is the song Blondie never got around to writing, perfect pop with just a hint of menace, while ‘In the Wake of You’ sounds more than a little like the Bangles.

Too True is the third album from the Dum Dum Girls. After various line­up changes — the band has had ten members in just six years — they have finally cohered as a studio outfit.

Penny began by releasing material she recorded in her bedroom in Los Angeles back in ’08. By comparison, the sound of Too True is confident and polished, with production duties shared by the Brill Building veteran, Richard Gottehrer, and Sune Rose Wagner, of the Raveonettes.

There is much to like about Too True, not least its brevity; the album is just over half an hour in length. Most of the tracks clock in around three minutes, with the closer, ‘Trouble Is My Name,’ seeming like an epic, at four minutes and one second.

The songs are sassy and easy on the ear. ‘Cult of Love’ and ‘Evil Blooms’ are stand­outs, while the lead single, ‘Lost Boys and Girls Club,’ is radio-friendly and will, no doubt, do its promotional duties with aplomb.

But the album highlights what seems true of so much contemporary indie music: it’s simply retreading everything that came before. Different girl, but same guitars.

And much of what seemed new and exciting about guitar pop in the ’70s here seems derivative and just a little sad.