So why is The Dandy Warhols’ The Dandy Warhols Come Down on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
I vaguely recall hearing about The Dandy Warhols for the first time and thinking that the band name was a little bit funny and a little bit – or maybe a lot of bit – hipster at the same time. Which sort of tracks with what you’re in store for with the indie/alt rockers who hail from Portland, Oregon.
Also, importantly: they can truly rock out with catchy, tuneful music.
“Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth” – perhaps one of the most on brand hipster song titles of all time – is the first Dandy Warhols song I ever heard, and it’s still arguably my second most favorite to this day (falling only behind the even more hipster and outstanding “Bohemian Like You,” off of Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia).
I’ve used the word “hipster” a few times here, and it’s important to note that I mainly mean it in the positive sense of the easy cool attitude that The Dandy Warhols deliver, which carries across their sound, lyrics, attitude, and performance. When I first heard them back in the late ‘90s, it was such a refreshing balm from the “radio crossover”-seeking derivative “grunge” bands and the (mostly not good) “nu metal” acts that were dominating airwaves and MTV around that time.
Few bands hit a mid-tempo groove that can vibe out in my head for days on end: “Minnesoter” and “Every Day Should Be A Holiday” are perfect examples.
I have massive respect for “Cool As Kim Deal” in so many ways: all-time great song title, all-time hipster credibility points, and this things just jams with attitude and confidence and chilled out vibes.
And then your mileage may vary on this one, but “Hard On For Jesus”? Pretty great, says this writer who did not, let us say, grow up in that tradition.
Personal stuff that has something to do with The Dandy Warhols Come Down
The Dandy Warhols are one of the most recent “big” acts that my wife and I caught live in Seattle. They sounded great – as great as ever, but that wasn’t the problem.
The problem in part was where we happened to end up in the venue (off on one side of the stage, where the sound was crazy loud and warped – the band sounded 1,000% crisper when standing outside the ticket booth in the front of the house), and another part of the problem was the opening act, a space jam outfit that put us deep into the snoozer zone well before the Dandy’s took the stage.
But maybe really the problem was that we’re getting old! Or older, at any rate. I use the phrase “you gotta want it” with regard to many things, and sometimes seeing live shows is best left to the young ‘uns, I’m afraid to say.
Some stats & info about The Dandy Warhols Come Down
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Alternative Rock, Indie Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 3 out of 5 stars (??)
- When was The Dandy Warhols Come Down released? 1997
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #226 out of 1,000
The Dandy Warhols Come Down on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from The Dandy Warhols Come Down that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
I never thought you’d be a junkie because heroin is so passe.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.