by
Benjy Ferree
- Record Label: Domino
- Release Date: Feb 17, 2009
- Critic score
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The end result is an album that’s at once confident, playful and timeless, a treat for rock and roll fans of all stripes.
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Here, then, is a songwriter capable of drawing remarkable depth from swinging pop-rock, crafting a distinctive voice among an oversaturated pop-music landscape and leaving a front-to-back winner of an LP as evidence.
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Despite its gloomy subject matter, it's really quite a fun listen.
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Q MagazineBut it's the art-punk sense of fearless invention that makes...Bobby Dee a winning album in praise of life's losers. [Feb 2010, p. 105]
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We do get a consistent, theatrical dose of glamorous rockabilly out of Bobby Dee.
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The only major drawback with Come Back to the Five and Dime, Bobby Dee Bobby Dee is that Ferree throws so much of his energy into writing about Driscoll that the songs don’t work nearly as well outside of the collection.
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Under The RadarA skuzzy glam gem replete with blues-driven riffs, deranged doo-wop vamps, and an overiding preen redolent of Queen. [Winter 2009, p.78]
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Ferree obviously loves his source material, and the way he weaves in the references throughout is ingenious. But something about the pleasure he takes in his obsession cloisters it away - he can't quite make his subject matter in a way that transcends Bobby Driscoll's life and death.
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As it is, Come Back can only be considered a noble attempt at something Ferree just didn't have the skills to pull off.
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He never quite sells us on the necessity of getting into Bobby D.’s head, and only rarely evinces that he’s done so himself. The good news is that the album is strong anyway, more so when unyoked from the underlying concept.
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with songs as strong as bluesy snarler 'Great Scott!,' the gospel-leaning 'Fear,' and stomp-along 'Tired of Being Good,' the musical debts are easier to forgive, if not ignore.
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Alternative PressIt's not bad, but it's no zobie romance, that's for sure. [Mar 2009, p.113]
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Sometimes, though, the style detracts from the substance, and while the lyrics are heavy with allusions to Driscoll's life, they render him an enigma.
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While it would be hasty to suggest disregarding the main conceptual focus, the truth is that Come Back to the Five and Dime, Bobby Dee, Bobby Dee's virtues lie in Ferree's considerable talents as a singer and songwriter, and not as a testament to a forgotten star or as a treatise on youth, fame and loneliness.
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UncutFerree's insistence of shoving everything right up front in the mix, all the time, becomes wearing, but you can't fault his enthusiasm. [Jan 2010, p. 110]