Released:
Rating:
Preposterously clothed, young and talented, the D’Addarios’ time is now.
Label: 4AD
Released: October 14th 2016
Rating: ★★★★★
Preposterously clothed, preposterously young and apparently preposterously talented, ‘Do Hollywood’ is a fitting title for Brian and Michael D’Addario’s 4AD debut, and not just because they’ve both already acted. It suggests they’ve travelled from Long Island to LA, possibly in a time machine, and won’t go back till they’ve taken it all.
With production from Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado, the brothers split vocals, guitars, drums, keys, horns, strings and a fair bit of xylophone between them, and the results are a gleefully chaotic, tartan-trousered and sequinned joy.
‘I Wanna Prove To You’ rattles in, shifting from an ELO-esque vamp through swooning, echoey hints of ‘Pet Sounds’ to finger-clicking doo-wop in about a minute: they’re cramming ideas in, doing something, anything to grab our attention.
And grabbed it is, only to be dragged away by the screwball skiffle of ‘Those Days Is Comin’ Soon’ and the chaotic, galloping carousel organ of ‘Haroomata’. As with ‘Hi+Lo’, it might trip over itself, piling on overdubs, but only out of enthusiastic experimentation. The scatter-shot, playful pastiche might not be for everyone, but if you’re with them, you’ll forgive them anything, and the best moments here are stunning.
‘These Words’ and ‘As Long As We’re Together’ are two. The first switches from squelching synths via a plaintive verse to a huge, harmony-laden chorus and xylophone breakdown, while the second mashes ‘All The Young Dudes’ and baroque synths into cracked, swirling psychedelia. ‘How Lucky Am I?’, too, is unabashedly gorgeous, with lush piano chords and a chorus cooked up in some heavenly pop laboratory.
“I have enough previous worlds, to know which one I’m in,” Brian sings on ‘These Words’, and we’re definitely in a previous one here. But the D’Addarios’ time sounds like now, and ‘Do Hollywood’ is a blast. Rob Mesure
