Album Name: Dresden Dolls
Artist: Dresden Dolls
Year/Label: 2003 / 8 ft Records
[Buy at Amazon]
Review by Anna Maria Stjärnell
Theatrical, bizarre, weird..however you slice it Dresden Dolls are not an ordinary band. This dynamic duo of Amanda Palmer (voice, piano) and Brian Vigilone (drums) have made what is easily this years best debut. Maybe even the best record of this year.
Palmer plays the piano like a demented cabaret goddess and sings like no one else can. Viglione drums steadily and with fiery passion. They call it Brechtian punk cabaret and that’s as good a label as any.
“Girl Anachronism” is a searing tale of a deeply troubled person. Palmer pounds her keys and shouts her words like she’s afraid someone’s going to cut off the electricity any second.
“Missed Me” tells of an underage seductress (hello Lolita!) in less than healthy terms. Palmer gets under her skin like she does with her other narrators. The staccato bursts of piano frames her words perfectly.
“Coin Operated Boy” is a hit in the Bizarro universe. Palmer describes a sex aid that gives “love without complications galore”. Then the song becomes almost unbearably poignant.
“Bad Habit” is a great commentary on self-destructiveness. “Sappy songs about sex and cheating/…/makes me want to give mankind a beating” Palmer sings.
The lighter “The Jeep Song” is catchy and energetic.
“Dresden Dolls” is as great as any other work of art. As great as anything gets when it’s created with passion and guts.
Posted on November 28, 2003
Track Listing
Listen to track samples
1. Good Day
2. Girl Anachronism
3. Missed Me
4. Half Jack
5. 672
6. Coin-Operated Boy
7. Gravity
8. Bad Habit
9. The Perfect Fit
10. The Jeep Song
11. Slide
12. Truce
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Comments:
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: WOW!! first i am introduced to the white stripes. and now this. i never knew music could mean SO much to me. the dresden dolls bring emotion to my life that no-one else can. they are just an incredible band. so unique and talented.
name: Emma on Wednesday, December 7, 2005
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: I LOVE this cd, I give it a full 5 stars. All the songs are so well put together… it’s amazing. the lyrics, the piano, the drums, everything fits together like a perfect puzzle. I find that each song tells a story, and it paints a vivid picture. I am such a HUGE fan. In my travels lately I found a poll that you can vote for them as best band, and I thought you all might like to check it out… its right here : http://www.spin.com/community/readers_poll/ I hope they win just because I dig the whole album so much… I say it is PHENOMINAL. With a capital PH ENOMINAL.
name: Jeanne
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: Twice in my life now a band has come along and captured my CD player for months at a time. The first band was Goldfinger and now The Dresden Dolls. The Dresden Dolls self titled and A Is for Accident CDs have been played non-stop in my car CD player for about 5 months now. That’s right… I haven’t listened to anything else musically (Had to listen to my White Sox win the World Series!) I am so enthralled with this unique band that I’ve been to two live shows with my wife and dressed up like The Dolls both times. I also plan on traveling from Chicago to Boston to see and hear them on their own terf. Refreshingly unique and delightfully bizarre, check out The Dolls now!
By Jaysen Fitzgerald on Friday, November 4, 2005
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: Very powerful band – check them out live! It´s just two people but they do know how to rock!
By Samuel on Thursday, August 18, 2005
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: I LOVE the Dresden Dolls. I have only been listening to them for over a year but Amanda Palmer has managed to transform my perspective as far as playing the piano. Amanda rocks my world! So inspired. She is a true trailblazer as far as piano-rock goes.
ByAimee Leonard on Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Note”: Aimee is a Collected Sounds featured artist, read a review of her CD What Happened” on Collected Sounds.
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: My friend let me borrow her CD and I love it! The Dresden Dolls rock my socks!!!!!
By Chris on Monday, June 13, 2005
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: ~{The dresden dolls are a great band one of my favourites I LOVE IT!!! I would recomend this cd to eneyone who is intersted in poety and peaple who like new sounds}~
By Joe on Sunday, January 30, 2005
Rating: 5 Star
Comment: this album shines with the brilliance of deranged but talented creativity. i love the furiously energetic tunes, and the lyrics are dark, fun and deep. best album of the year.
By kerry on Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: most amazing band ever.
By wenzdai on Sunday, January 16, 2005
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: This is one of the most amazing duo’s that i’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to. Their songs are so different and captivating that once i listened to their CD i couldn’t stop listening. I went around for weeks with their lyrics stuck in my head. I really love their CD and would love to hear more from them.
By Amber Binney on Monday January 10, 2005
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: the dresden dolls are probably one of the most artistic and original bands i’ve ever heard. amanda palmer and brian viglione have created something so powerful and so intense it gives me shivers just listening to it.
By sarah rivera on Sunday, January 9, 2005
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: Sweet CD… simply amazing. I’m generally a metal/rock/anything hard type guy, but this just swept me off my feet.
By Dan on Tuesday, January 4, 2005
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: I have the full length and there’s nothing else to say except AWESOME!!! Rock on Dolls! \m/
By Sam on Friday, December 24, 2004
name: Sabeth
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: A friend of mine at college introduced me to the Dresden Dolls last week, and I must say, I fell instantly in love. This is not normally my type of music (I’m more of a techno/eurotrash/black metal type person, though I like to consider myself ecclectic with music), but the raw emotion and just plain awesome-ness of both her voice and piano and the good drum beats really got me hooked. Their live stuff is so great, too. I want to go to a show so badly, hopefully I will, eventually. I recommend this band with as many stars as possibly, certainly more than five. Yay!
By Sabeth on Thursday, December 23, 2004
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: i first heard coin operated boy and girl anachronism a few days ago driving around with my friend one insomina driven night.i instantly had to purchase the album for myself and i fell in love with the passionate singing mostly self explanatory lyrics snaring drums and romantic piano keys.there simply lovely together.
By lucio on Friday, December 17, 2004
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: Hey Dresden Dolls Fans! MTV2’s subterranean is having their year end ‘Best of 2004’ voting and The Dresden Dolls have been nominated! If you like the band, be sure to go out to http://www.mtv.com/onair/mtv2/subterranean/best_of_2004/ and vote as many times as you can! Thanks! -Kindrana
By Kindrana on Monday, December 13, 2004
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: I heard the Dresden Dolls (coin operated boy) late one rainy night coming home from work and was absolutely floored. My amazement increased tenfold when I purchased their Studio Debut Album, and I haven’t been able to stop listening to it since. The sad thing, however, is that everybody I’ve exposed to their brilliance have been immediately turned off!! This is VERY distressing for me, as I would really like to see this Dynamic Duo leap onto the scene and rip to shreds the drab crap that currently pollutes the airways. So either I have bad taste or all my “friends” (don’t know how I could befriend anyone who didn’t recognize such blatant brilliance) are just bumps on logs, too brainwashed to recognize the importance of good music. Even my wonderful fiancé whose musical interests are very similar to my own refuses, it seems, to give this music a fair shot!! So what’s going on, is it Me or is it Them?? In my defense that my taste is slightly more evolved than a cup of yogurt, I have yet to read a negative review and that is heartening indeed! If anyone is lurking in this site reading these reviews, please do yourself a favor and find some way, through hook or through crook, of acquiring this music, it is time well spent I guarantee!
by Bumlook3r on Monday, December 6, 2004
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: everything that i’ve always wanted to say and more. the epitomy of my life
By becky burr on Monday, December 6, 2004
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: Every time I play Dresden Dolls on my radio/web show (wwuh.org, Wed.1-4pm EST), I get a bunch of phone calls. Hard to name more original American band!
By Eugene The Ear Stretcher on Friday, November 19, 2004
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: the dresden dolls can have my babies… the sound is angsty, but at the same time, amanda seems to be laughing at herself bitterly. there is inherint darkness, but also a maniacal hillarity. i give it 150 stars. you cant tell me its only worth 5..
By anananananana on Sunday, October 31, 2004
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: Their lyrics are original and jam-packed with some of the most influencial and passionate emotions — both good and evil\bad. My God! You just cannot explain them, except by saying: The Dresden Dolls.. are *THEY, THEMSELVES* and nothing more or less. Addicted up the Wah-zoo with these Katz. \m/ They Rock. And If I could.. I’d give them 13-and-a-half stars. ;] – Signed, GirlMustDie…, Joyce
By GirlMustDie…on Thursday, September 30, 2004
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: Hi, I think this duo is bursting with talent – they have many influences ( I hear Weill and Brecht, Sousxie and the Banshees, and music boxes) but they are totally unique. It is very touching music. I relate to it as one who found it painful to fit in, at the same time I didn’t give a damn about that. As one who sat at a piano (if I could find one) playing for hours, but without formal training, Amanda’s musical trajectory seems familiar to me. All of the songs are extremely good on this album. I also like that it does not sound at all synthesized or fashioned by recording profiteers. instead, it is human – full of fraility and rage, a brush sweep of emotion. In other words, the music is real.
~By sAFRYE@EARTHLINK.NET on Sunday, August 15, 2004
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment: Brazil loves Dresdeb Dolls! We are waiting a show here!
~Brazil on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 Rating: 5 Stars Comment: Dresden Dolls present great music, this band is something new in a “World Of Music”. I recommend this CD for everybody who wants to hear something new. DRESDEN DOLLS COME TO POLAND WE’RE WAITING FOR YOU.
~ByMarcin Rutkowski from POLAND on Sunday, July 25, 2004
Rating: 3 Stars
well i heard girl anchronism and feel happy that dresden dolls are around over here in new zealand where still waiting for the album to be released its very big in undre ground right now give it a couple of months i say,and it will blow up in mainstreams face knowing a band this good is out their makes me feel like running down the road naked with dresden dolls painted on my body saying BUY THE DRESDEN DOLLS NEW ALBUM,give me a bottle of vodka and this can easily be done So just to let everyone know all over the world THE DRESDEN DOLLS ARE THE SHIT i just might even start a fan club(joking)any way new zealand cant wait to recieve you and even if where lucky they might come to new zealand anticipating listener bobby-lee ps i give them 10 stars
~Bybobby-lee moa