“Welcome to the real world,” sings Pete Franklin on the leadoff
\ntrack of
\nReal World<\/i>, the second release from Britain’s Dirty Deeds.
\nFollowing the cancellation of the Iron Maiden tour where the band
\nwas making their debut and the shuttering of Velvel Records (who
\nwere supposed to release the band’s debut
\nDanger Of Infection<\/i>), that phrase probably rings too true to
\nthe band.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the phrase applies to the entire album
\nReal World<\/i>, which fails to break any new ground for the band
\nand tries unsuccessfully to build on the strong foundation they
\nlaid with
\nDanger Of Infection<\/i>. It gets tiring to refer to the
\n“sophomore slump,” but
\nReal World<\/i> is, sadly, a textbook case of this – and it’s
\nfrustrating when you know this band is capable of better.<\/p>\n
There are, admittedly, some moments where it sounds like Dirty
\nDeeds has things running full steam ahead. “Kill The Pain” is a
\ndefinite pick for a radio track, integrating a little more of the
\nharmony vocals that this band underuses so much. The guitar work of
\nFranklin and Barry Fitzgibbon shines on this track.<\/p>\n
Regrettably, this is the only strong track on the disc. “Welcome
\nTo The Real World,” which kicks off the disc, sounds like a
\nre-tread of “Nothing To Lose,” the first song off
\nDanger Of Infection<\/i>. When you start repeating things like
\nthat early in the album, you can see the red flag being raised.
\nGranted, the song isn’t a note-for-note cover of “Nothing To Lose,”
\nbut it’s disconcerting to hear two albums in a row led off by a
\nsong in the same key, in the same tempo.<\/p>\n
For that matter, most of the songs on
\nReal World<\/i> don’t vary much in tempo. Normally, this isn’t a
\nthing to worry about, but add in to the mix a drop in the quality
\nof the songwriting, and the concern factor increases tenfold.
\nTracks like “Nightmare,” “Hell On Earth” and “Cyber Babe” just fall
\nflat, failing to inspire or encourage the listener. One could even
\nsay that the album has a dull ring to it.<\/p>\n
What is discouraging about this is that Dirty Deeds is a band
\ncapable of so much better work.
\nDanger Of Infection<\/i> and their live shows have proven this.
\n(I’ve also gone on record to say that Dirty Deeds’s magic is better
\ncaptured in the live setting rather than the studio.) But
\nReal World<\/i> does more than fall short of expectations. In a
\nsense, it’s almost as if the band wasn’t trying hard enough to
\ncreate an album that took them to the next step. And that,
\nchildren, is the greatest disappointment of all.<\/p>\n
Dirty Deeds is a strong enough band to come back from such a
\nsetback with killer material. But one wouldn’t have expected their
\nstumbling point to come on only their second album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6296],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-36555","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dirty-deeds","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36555"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36555"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}