Nineties music buffs like me vaguely remember dada\u2019s one semi-hit single \u201cDizz Knee Land,\u201d a fine if not entirely necessary slice of early-decade alternative rock. Like a lot of \u201890s one-hit alt-rock wonders, there\u2019s more to the disc than the one song, although the sound is a little closer suited to the middle of the decade when the Gin Blossoms, Candlebox, and the Presidents Of The United States Of America were commercially successful. One wonders if dada would have seen more success \u2013 or at least exposure \u2013 had this disc come out a bit later.<\/p>\n
Part of the issue with Puzzle <\/i>is that much of it is rather faceless, the kind of alternative-inspired rock that sounds right but doesn\u2019t quite give you a glimpse of the band\u2019s personality. Their offbeat, adolescent humor comes through on the woozy spoken road trip story \u201cHere Today, Gone Tomorrow,\u201d which approaches Pixies in its gonzo rantings-meets-noise combination, \u201cDizz Knee Land\u201d and the Bo Diddley-esque chunky rhythms of \u201cPosters.\u201d <\/p>\n
Unlike other serious alt-rockers of this time period, dada is not afraid to peel off guitar solos and riffs in unexpected places, such as the extended axe-hero introduction to \u201cDim,\u201d the title song and the middle part of \u201cWho You Are,\u201d which mines a rich melodic vein and layered voices to create a sublimely affecting song. \u201cPuzzle\u201d arrives as the climax of the disc, taking its sweet time teasing the listener with a long bass introduction topped with quiet guitar squalls and the layered voices before exploding into a wordless chorus about two minutes in. <\/p>\n
Although the strong alt-rock influence guides this disc, there\u2019s an undercurrent of country and folk in the L.A. trio\u2019s harmony singing and some of the guitar lines, such as on the dull closer \u201cMoon,\u201d the richly complex \u201cMary Sunshine Rain\u201d (which suggests another career path had \u201cDizz Knee Land\u201d not been a hit, bringing Blackfoot\u2019s classic \u201cTrain, Train\u201d and a hint of Jimmy Page to mind), and the six-minute opener \u201cDorina.\u201d That song lopes into its introduction with all the swagger and purpose of a Saturday night at the bar, morphs into a standard country rocker with room for two long guitar solos, then unexpectedly moves into a lovely closing section in the final two minutes with touches of psychedelia and falsetto singing while the guitar, again, grows in stature. <\/p>\n
Of all the songs, \u201cDorina\u201d and \u201cMary Sunshine Rain\u201d are the best, giving a sense of false hope of what the rest of the disc will sound like, and those two plus \u201cPuzzle\u201d showcase a confident approach that is quite impressive for a debut. Pity that songs like \u201cTimothy,\u201d \u201cSurround,\u201d \u201cDog,\u201d \u201cMoon\u201d and \u201cPosters\u201d (what, were the guys naming whatever they could see from their bedroom window?) clog up half the disc, killing whatever momentum the best songs build up.<\/p>\n
Still, although it may not qualify as a lost classic, Puzzle <\/i>is well worth seeking out for its highlights and for busting the myth that \u201cDizz Knee Land\u201d was the best these guys had to offer. Not by a long shot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":32780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[9843],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-44552","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dada","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44552","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44552"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44552"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}