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Jan 20, 2011Gorgeous fuzz guitar leads and glam rock glitter dominate, offset by soft layered harmonies and dreamy textures.
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Jan 18, 2011Teen dreaminess aside, Dye It Blonde shows that Smith Westerns' giddy mash-ups of stately Beatles melodies and T. Rex swagger play even better when buffed to a high gloss.
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Jan 28, 2011The band never merely repeats itself here, creating a record that sounds at once cohesive and loaded with singles. It's a rare feat, and one that usually gets overlooked by critics shooting for the zeitgeist. Good for us that we didn't miss out on this one.
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Jan 14, 2011The band recorded in a real New York City studio, with a real producer, Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beach House). And the songs are even better.
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Jan 18, 2011This is why Dye It Blonde is truly a success: the band have moved from the garage noise-rock sound to a much more atmospheric one wherein the noise is harnessed into multiple layers of melodic instrumentation.
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Jan 18, 2011Though the leap is audibly huge, Dye It Blonde's many successes aren't wholly the result of its gilded production values and ambition. This band was able to furnish first-class melodies from the beginning. Now they've grown along with their resources.
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Jan 18, 2011It's that mix of dedication to cool and earnestness that makes Dye it Blond endearing and surprisingly timeless despite its obvious wink to the past.
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Q MagazineMay 31, 2011An effortless marriage of modern dream-pop loops and classical 70s guitar lines, it entertains notions of Thin Lizzy and Steely Dan, while producer Chris Coady lends the whole a steadfastly modern feel. [Jun 2011, p.120]
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May 12, 2011This is glorious summer music, possibly the summer of 1974, but sunshine all round none the less.
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May 3, 2011Dye It Blonde has unexpectedly crept into contention for being my favourite record of 2011 so far.
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May 2, 2011Smith Westerns might not play barre chords, but they're properly good songwriters – smart kids with mean tunes, sharp minds and great record collections.
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Apr 28, 2011Hooks, in fact, are the thing here: Dye It Blonde is crowded with them. It's a joy to hear a band who want you to enjoy their music, not just admire it.
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Apr 20, 2011Smith Westerns are that rare treat: an intelligent indie band with a love of a good tune and a good time.
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Apr 18, 2011When you have the knack, as this band most clearly have, of infusing your music with such full and rich emotion, then it makes sense to use that as your primary method of conveying meaning.
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Jan 21, 2011The band isn't doing anything that hasn't been done before, but damn if that doesn't seem to matter a lick while listening to the record. It's just too youthful, effervescent, and charming.
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Jan 18, 2011Anyone who liked the debut and was filled with apprehension about what would happen next will be pleasantly surprised, and might even end up liking this record more.
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Jan 18, 2011The Chicagoans' sophomore full-length is tightened and scrubbed clean of a few of the layers of reverb that doused their debut, bringing to the forefront an ambitious and dexterous level of songwriting that belies their ever-so-slightly-post-adolescent ages.
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Jan 14, 2011Dye It Blonde blows away the fuzz and polishes the scratchy sounds off their last recordings, revealing a whole lot of something we didn't hear before.
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Feb 11, 2011It would be more of a worry if Dye It Blonde's high points weren't so revelatory or well-executed because while it's not a conceptually brilliant record, there are enough triumphs to score a summer romance and get cut up on mix CDs.
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Jan 18, 2011At the very least, Dye It Blonde is a promising step forward for a group that's still growing into its talents.
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Jan 14, 2011When the band amps up the tragic guitars and the vocal swoon, Dye it Blonde convincingly creates its own world.
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Jan 14, 2011Dye It Blonde slows down a tad, too often eschewing bright, spot-on hooks in favor of washed-out '60s texture. But when they get it, they really get it.
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Under The RadarMar 23, 2011Notably talented musicians, expect that by their next album, Smith Westerns won't just emulate their influences, but fully embody what could become a unique sound. [Feb. 2011, p. 72]
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Feb 3, 2011Dye It Blonde ends up capturing the post-Beatles hole in the most authentic way possible.
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Jan 18, 2011The second disc from this Chicago trio is what David Bowie might call a total blam-blam--an overpowering blast of glam-rocking gorgeousness.
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Jan 14, 2011Doing their best to make the most out of a situation and other people's preconceived notions and arbitrarily established boundaries, the boys of Smith Westerns made their Britpop magnum opus, for better or for worse. Here's to the next cut and color they choose.
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Sep 12, 2011Dye It Blonde certainly demonstrates polish over its predecessor with the leap to Fat Possum.
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MojoMay 18, 2011The remainder unfurls in similar fashion: laudably spirited, often astoundingly catchy and entirely indebted to the past. [Jun 2011, p.101]
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UncutMay 13, 2011Elsewhere the good time roll with tuneful consistency as singer Cameron Omori arranges his affairs of the heart into three-minute teen-dreams called "Dance Away" and "Fallen In Love." [Jun 2011, p.96]
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Jan 18, 2011Dye It Blonde may be a more accomplished production than Smith Westerns, but it's also a roundly enervating creation, drained of the fuzzy promise that defined the band's debut.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 38 out of 42
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Mixed: 3 out of 42
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Negative: 1 out of 42
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Jan 22, 2011
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Aug 22, 2014
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Apr 23, 2012