This review was commissioned. However, it bears no weight on the score or decision. All reviews are written from an unbiased standpoint.
I struggled for a while to describe the type of music that Jay Draper & the Subterraneans makes but in the end I’ve come up with this: cultish hippy music that could be the soundtrack of your untimely death at the hands of a bunch of tie-dye wearing loonies. Regardless I’ve had a rollercoaster ride with the band as I absolutely adored their 2021 LP Behind the Night but found their follow-up single to be abysmal. So I found it interesting to dive into their sophomore LP Dollhouse as I wasn’t sure where this was going to land. And the answer is that it lands in good territory but nothing quite astounding.
One thing to get out of the way real quick. Draper does have a pretty good set of chords. So I’m not going to sit here and continually praise his efforts in each song unless they’re deserved. But I’m also not going to bash him on that front unless I feel the need to. Onto the album review.
Gone takes inspiration from the modern post-punk scene and it almost works. Almost as the whatever ambient electronic scraping is happening in the background of the track makes it sound like my earbuds or speakers or whatever I’m listening to on it are busted. I’ll give kudo to the clever use of mixing as Draper will whisper here and there between his bouts of singing and it’ll either come in through the left or right arena. I find this to be a cool little thing that bands do every so often so long as it doesn’t become a constant or a trope.
The beginning of Only Hope is rough as the cosmos like vibe of bass guitar and psychedelic electronic doesn’t fit the high energy output of Draper’s voice. That being said it does come together during the chorus of the song where everything becomes this magical, cult-like hippy track. Verse ain’t so great but the chorus is good.
A Death in the Dollhouse follows on the throughput of what we’ve seen before which, as described in the intro paragraph, is that cultish hippy vibe that could possibly get your murdered by a bunch of acid abusing tie-dye wearing loonies. Nothing too grand but if you like what you’ve heard so far you’re going to continue enjoying this.
Artificial Reality is a pretty fun song that gives off a simple beat but never gets rid of the cosmic sensation that Jay Draper eludes to on a constant. The electronic note that runs from high to low then back again gives it an otherworldly feel.
For Heaven’s Sake brings back some of the vibes I had when I first reviewed Behind the Night, that being these amazing crescendos that are paired between bouts of hollering. Some rather gorgeous piano keys decorate the track as well and that’s always a bonus.
Self Control dives into funky electronic rock a bit and plays around with synths heavier than the other tracks on the album but I feel as if the mixing is off especially around the four-and-a-half minute mark.
I’m unsure if this was done on purpose or not but Just a Dream is much, much more quiet than the other tracks on the album. That always makes for a jarring effect on any listener. But from what I did hear on the song its decent; vocal fronted with the music being the underlier this time around. I didn’t quite enjoy the final minutes of the song as incoherent mumbling took precedence over actual singing and it felt like there was a deconstruction going on. That or they were riding off into a cavern on a boat and all you could hear was the reverb of the song.
Last Street Before Nowhere had the potential to come together and deliver something different on the album as slamming percussion hits out at the beginning but it somewhat falls apart into a menagerie of experimental structures that don’t really mix all that well. The final song on the album is a final send off to whoever Judy is. It’s good, a bit long, but good. Nothing much more I can say about it.
Whenever a review a repeat band on the website I do two things. One thing is that I compare their current efforts to their previous to see where they came from. Does it do better, evolve, does it get tiresome, was it worth it? And second thing I do is I always compare the album to other albums I’ve rated; does it deserve the same score as others. Behind the Night was originally rated a solid 8.5 out of 10 and that’s because it blew me away. Dollhouse does not have that profound of an effect on me. Sure, it’s an album I can sit through and listen to but there’s nothing that stands out to me as much as the songs on that album. I wouldn’t say it comes that close.
There was a certain magic in Behind the Night that’s been left behind and while Draper and friends are committing good deeds in their current state, it just doesn’t do as well as what once was.
