• Record Label: Sub Pop
  • Release Date: Jan 28, 2014
Metascore
72

Generally favorable reviews - based on 37 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 37
  2. Negative: 2 out of 37
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  1. Magnet
    Feb 21, 2014
    85
    Once it works its way through your ears, Too True won't leave your head anytime soon. [No. 106, p.56]
  2. Jan 28, 2014
    83
    The new Too True not only sounds more self-assured and cohesive, but it also channels the more recent past.
  3. 83
    Too True proves that Dum Dum Girls are as relevant today as they were six years ago because they know that evolution is the key to survival. This is their sound, the sound of today, and they wear it well.
  4. 80
    Too True preserves what makes Dum Dum Girls great, while pushing the band to brilliant new heights.
  5. Jan 28, 2014
    80
    Sleek and sophisticated, this third full-length careens from muscular blasts of ’80s guitar rock (“In the Wake of You”) to spectral ballads (“Are You Okay?”).
  6. Jan 27, 2014
    80
    A few chords, a clear melody and succinct verse-chorus-bridge structures are filled with darkly allusive lyrics and floated amid gauzy, sweeping guitar effects.
  7. Jan 27, 2014
    80
    No matter how many times Dee Dee alludes to heartbreak and ritualistic evil, Too True is a joyful career pinnacle.
  8. Jan 27, 2014
    80
    Split between uptempo rockers like "Little Minx" and "Evil Blooms," powerful and hooky midtempo tracks like "Rimbaud Eyes," and streaked-eyeliner ballads like "Under These Hands," the record has a dynamic flow and balance of sounds and moods that previous albums haven't been able to accomplish.
  9. Mojo
    Jan 23, 2014
    80
    Rather than being derivative, this album is a perfect pop balance of cliche and rawness, with mythic ambition and songs that make you a three-minute hero. [Feb 2014, p.95]
  10. Uncut
    Jan 23, 2014
    80
    Too True is a bold album. [Feb 2014, p.73]
  11. Jan 23, 2014
    80
    Working again with pop Svengali Richard Gottehrer and the Raveonettes’ Sune Rose Wagner, DDG find a nice middle ground between their signature detachment and a classic pop sensibility.
  12. Feb 10, 2014
    76
    Written in part after Dee Dee was put on vocal rest, Too True infuses the band’s eyeliner-heavy songs with moments of quiet reflection that bite almost as hard as those delivered with snarl.
  13. Jan 28, 2014
    75
    For now, the best way to sum it up would be “one small step for music, one giant leap for Dum Dum Girls.”
  14. Jan 23, 2014
    75
    Dee Dee Penny wears her heart on one sleeve and her influences on the other, and Too True is translucent with both.
  15. Jan 27, 2014
    74
    There are clichés, and there are exalted clichés, and Dee Dee at her best reminds you of this distinction.
  16. 70
    If you enjoyed their last album, you'll likely be game for Too True. If they lost you after their first album, you won't be won back. Maybe this will be a grower for me, but it's not an immediate year-end contender for me.
  17. Jan 31, 2014
    70
    While the production and moodiness of the record are strong, the emotion that made much of their previous records such a pleasure has been a bit sapped.
  18. Jan 29, 2014
    70
    Although Too True is not Dum Dum Girls’ finest hour--that would still be the cathartic Only in Dreams--it remains a commendable shift from an artist on the verge of being swallowed up by memory.
  19. Jan 29, 2014
    70
    At its core, it's just unabashed pop songwriting with some influences firmly worn on the sleeve.
  20. Jan 28, 2014
    70
    Songs like "Rimbaud Eyes" and "Evil Blooms" more than live up to their fashion-goth titles. But Penny is best opening up her sound on big, searching ballads.
  21. 70
    By drinking deep from the coolest records and the hippest poets, Penny succeeds in beginning a new chapter for her band.
  22. Jan 24, 2014
    70
    If, like me, you agree Too True should be taken in smaller doses and divvied up into playlists, so be it. It should still be taken. Great pop is a terrible thing to waste.
  23. Jan 24, 2014
    70
    Interestingly, the album itself isn't “too true”--rather, it’s just true enough.
  24. Jan 23, 2014
    70
    As with so much of Too True, it's more Flowers in the Attic than Flowers of Evil. But it's also part of a glorious art-goth tradition: bookish rockers chasing pop into the dark, deep within the Hong Kong gardens, where all cats are grey.
  25. Jan 23, 2014
    65
    Though this turn towards all-out pop music doesn't breed inherently bad music (in fact, it's quite pleasant), but it's not the reason we fell in love with Dum Dum Girls.
  26. Apr 9, 2014
    60
    At a half hour, Too True might seem brief, but Penny makes the most of every minute.
  27. Q Magazine
    Jan 28, 2014
    60
    An engaging, easy on the senses combination of murk and shine, then. [Feb 2014, p.115]
  28. Penny has garage-rock form, but Too True is a light-footed, echo-heavy pop makeover with a 1980s gloss, frothy but forthright.
  29. Jan 27, 2014
    60
    Too True is a decent enough album and one which ends more strongly than it begins. But it isn't as good as 'Only In Dreams' and because of that, it can't help but feel a bit underwhelming.
  30. Jan 23, 2014
    60
    Too True is as squeamish as it is smouldering.
  31. Jan 23, 2014
    60
    It’s another enjoyable album from a band quietly proving to be one of the more consistent groups around.
  32. 55
    Tonally, it falls somewhere between the shoegazey aggression of I Will Be and Only in Dreams’ hazy hooks, but it’s lacking the former’s force of character and the latter’s infectious melodies.
  33. Feb 4, 2014
    50
    Restraint and getting to the point are valuable commodities in music, but Too True misfires in this regard.
  34. Mar 12, 2014
    40
    Too True offers the very definition of postmodern pastiche: a collection of ultimately empty gestures to previous forms.
  35. Feb 10, 2014
    40
    The band needs to play to its strengths, rather than a production style. This is not a band that sounds good with buried instruments. This is a group that sound best when they are in your face.
  36. Feb 13, 2014
    30
    It’s “Lost Boys and Girls Club,” “Cult of Love,” and “Trouble Is My Name” (“Trouble is my name/ Is it your name too?”), endless clichés in songwriting, narrative, subject, and sound.
  37. 20
    Too True amounts to little more than a succession of cliches and wall-to-wall empty stylisation, with the femme four-piece seemingly unaware that mimicry is not art, and nor is seriousness the same as being a serious artist.
User Score
7.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 29 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 29
  2. Negative: 1 out of 29
  1. Feb 13, 2014
    8
    This album is excellent. Songs are short, concise and very 80s retro. Becomes addictive with repeated listens. Totally pleased with this.This album is excellent. Songs are short, concise and very 80s retro. Becomes addictive with repeated listens. Totally pleased with this. Recommended to several friends. Full Review »
  2. Feb 4, 2014
    9
    This album rocks in so many ways: pop, alternative, electronic - even a touch of rock-goth. There's something here for everybody without beingThis album rocks in so many ways: pop, alternative, electronic - even a touch of rock-goth. There's something here for everybody without being spread out too thin. Nice vocals. Full Review »
  3. Apr 23, 2014
    6
    Sweet and sensual, with a lot of jangly guitar pop and garage rock edge. 80's rock and new wave vibes find their way into this record as well.Sweet and sensual, with a lot of jangly guitar pop and garage rock edge. 80's rock and new wave vibes find their way into this record as well. Blondie was clearly a big influence here. The songs are dark and moody but like all their previous work, it has very underwhelming vocals and melodies. It is a much more clearer effort than anything they've done and that's great. The urgency here thought is pretty lacking. Overall it was okay. Full Review »