Gang Gang Dance – Saint Dymphna

Among other things, such as mental illness, happy families and runaways, Saint Dymphna is said to be the patron saint of outsiders. Make of it what you will that Gang Gang Dance have broken their three year silence with an album that takes the name of the aforementioned saint, but whatever they are trying to represent it is hard to tell how well they are doing it. Their last effort was 2005’s ‘God’s Money’ which slow-burnt its way to a decent reputation, one which you expect a band to quickly follow up.

After various issues and sporadic recording sessions that curtailed this release until now they finally return and opener ‘Bebey’ would leave all but the most hardcore of fans wondering why they missed them in the first place. It is this sort of paceless amalgamation of noises and sound effects that separates this lot from kings of experimental melody TV On The Radio. ‘First Communion’ and ‘Blue Nile’ will irritate the listener even more, simply because they show you what the fuss was about last time around. The weirdness is allowed to grow around sturdy drum beats, wallowing vocals and soaring melodies. The former even has a touch of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs about it. Unfortuantely ‘Vacuum’ continues to toy with the listener, undoing all the hard work of its immediate predecessors.

‘Princes’ is led by UK rapper Tynchy Stryder and is another of the albums high points, but this spikey behaviour continues throughout the second half of the record with almost every song that raises over the top being followed by one that limps in. ‘House Jam’ and ‘Desert Storm’ do enough to guarantee a reprieve and whilst there is a good deal more impressive moments than there are disheartening ones this is definitely a case of what might have been. More often than not where there are vocals in place you will want to listen, but the music itself only just makes it on its own.