Album Review: Dananananaykroyd - Hey Everyone

Dananananaykroyd, not exactly the most normal of band names, and not exactly the most normal of bands. I suppose you could say the name is a pretty good representation of the band. It’s pretty weird, its kind of fun, its definitely different, and yeah that just about sums up the music the band make, how convenient.

Dananananaykroyd pretty much posses everything you need to be my favourite band, they are screaming and shouting one second and are then complete pop music the next, they have gang vocals galore and they’re different to everything else.

After gaining critical acclaim from debut EP released on Holy Roar Records ‘Sissy Hits’ and a couple of 7” vinyl further creating a bit of hype around the band, the time was right for the Glaswegian band to release their first full length. Mine, and I imagine a lot of other people’s expectations were high.

It’s a shame then, that before even getting the disc out of the packaging I was a little disappointed, the album contains a few recycled songs, there’s a couple of songs that featured on the EP, and there’s a couple of songs that had already appeared on vinyl. Still, there was enough new material to keep me happy, and to keep my expectations high.

The album starts with ‘Hey Everyone’ which is basically one and a half minutes of the band thrashing their instruments. Next up is ‘Watch This’ and within thirty seconds, any doubts and worries I had about this release are completely dashed, it has everything, fast pace, singing, squealing, contrasting vocals, crew shouts, it’s basically perfect.

The album carries on in the same brilliant fashion with ‘The Greater Then Symbol & The Hash’ which is an old track that has received a bit of a facelift, it’s the same jangly, eclectic music bands like At The Drive-In are loved for, and it is pretty reminiscent of label mates Johnny Foreigner at times.

‘Black Wax’ is next and this is first single to be taken from the album, it’s the same band except they’ve taken away the majority of shouting and replaced it with ‘woo’s’ and given the song a chorus most bands would kill for.

The album is just so consistent that it would seem pointless for me to carry on doing it track by track, all I’d be saying is that every track is amazing. It’s all there, the pop sensibility and gang vocals of ’Pink Sabbath’ and ‘Some Dresses’ to the eccentricity of ’Infinity Milk’ and the sheer craziness of ‘One Chance’ and everything inbetween. I just can't find any faults with the record at all, even the songs that some people may have already heard have been re recorded and are better than ever before.

Basically, people that already love the band, throw any doubts you have about how good this record will be out the window and go get this. People that haven’t heard the band, you need Dananananaykroyd in your life. Hey everyone, best release of 2009 so far? I say yeah.

5/5

Hey Everyone is out now on Best Before Records. More information at: http://www.myspace.com/dananananaykroyd

Daniel Ferguson