Review: White Dog ‘Double Dog Dare’
White Dog hail from Austin, Texas – an absolute hive of musical talent as I’m sure most of you will be aware. Coming to us via Rise Above Records, Double Dog Dare sees them deliver their second album of unashamedly, proudly, and authentic(ly) ‘70s retro rock in the vein of Lynyrd Skynyrd or The Allman Brothers Band.
There are quite a few bands in my collection taking this approach very successfully, and confusingly (to me at least) they mainly seem to come from mainland Europe!… does White Dog having a geographical claim to the original sound give them the edge?…
Holy Smokes is as strong an opening track as I’ve heard for quite some time. It leans heavily into supporting the guitar riff with liberal use of the Hammond organ, and the production is nicely warm and detailed. It’s immediately evident on this first track that the Janis Joplin-like backing vocals almost become co-lead – this works brilliantly well here and elevates the Holy Smokes to a level where I can, hand-on-heart, say that it wouldn’t be out of place on any of the classic early ‘70s albums that we could mention – as an individual track it really is that good.
Something worthy of note here is that with retro-sounding bands I can usually point straight to classic band A, B or C and say that they are the template. I’ve struggled to be able to do that with Holy Smokes though – it takes elements of all of the classic US bands but also touches on British bands like Cream to create something subtly different.
The track also has a music video to go with it – remember them? Your decision to watch the video should be carefully balanced depending on whether seeing the band dress up in an early-70s rock star fashion will help or hinder your experience of listening to the record. Personally speaking I kinda think overdoing the looking like the ‘70s can interfere with my feeling that what I’m hearing is authentic. But I totally understand that for other people, the fact that the band take the whole aural and visual aesthetic equally seriously is part of the joy of it. To each their own!
I’ve had a theory since I was about 14 that for an album to be truly great, the second track has to be a step above the first. Well, the title track comes next, and sadly my theory means that Double Dog Dare isn’t a truly great album because this track is a step down from Holy Smokes. It’s difficult to say precisely what it is that irks me about it, but this sort of jam-band shuffle accounts for the only tracks I’d ever skip over on a Skynyrd album, so it’s not that it is objectively bad by any measure, just not to my taste. The next number, however… hold onto your flares everyone.
F.D.I.C. proves the opening number wasn’t a flash in the pan. If anything, it’s even better. The guitar work on this one absolutely reeks of The Allman Brothers Band – the dual guitar work is stunning. The touches of slide guitar, together with more backing vocals, make the verses just as much of a pleasure as the main intro riff.
it takes elements of all of the classic US bands but also touches on British bands like Cream to create something subtly different…
Glenn’s Tune then does an about-face and instantly reminds me of the Grateful Dead when fronted by Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan. Those tracks were retro before anyone even knew what retro was, so a modern band emulating that might actually break the space-time continuum – we’ll just have to wait and see.
We then get A Message From Our Sponsor… now I’m a big advocate of a palate-cleanser or even a mock LP flip (Tool’s Aenima album on CD was the first time I remember this being used brilliantly well) but Double Dog Dare is only thirty-five minutes long so even the most attention-span-challenged amongst us could have done without this little ditty.
Frozen Shadows has an acoustic intro which provides some really nice variation to the album, and at just over seven minutes long this is quite a different beast to what has gone before. The verses are reminiscent of Nights In White Satin – make of that what you will! The tempo is lower and the organ comes into its own here. The short bursts in the higher tempo sections keep it interesting and the guitar solo is arguably the best on the album.
Lady Of Mars is the only track here that I don’t find to be memorable (for either good or bad reasons). The guitar work is good, but at this point almost two albums into a career, I think that’s just about a given for White Dog. This leads into Prelude which is again a bit of an oddity for such a short album. If we were in classic rock double album territory of maybe fifty minutes then I’d be on-board, but this track means we now have two fillers, which is two too many in my book.
Having read the track listings, I wondered whether this served as an intro to the final track, and they’d divided it up for royalties purposes. The tone of some of the organ work in The Last ‘Dam’ Song matches, so maybe we’ll give them a pass for that reason. It’s also the most blues-influenced track on the album. It sums up what’s gone before really well whilst being its own animal. It has a more laid-back vibe, but it sits right alongside Holy Smokes and F.D.I.C. in terms of quality.
Is Double Dog Dare going to rival Second Helping, Eat A Peach or Aoxomoxoa in my affections? Well of course not, but that’s not really the point. What White Dog do is prove that a classic sound is classic for a reason and that when you write and perform a new song in an old style, it can be just as effective and impactful as anything delivered as part of the latest sub-sub-genre that was invented last Thursday.
Some of the songwriting and guitar work here is really top notch and it’s been a joy to listen to. Would I have altered the track listing if I were in charge? Well, yes, but then I think Sweet Home Alabama is the worst thing Skynyrd ever recorded, so what do I know?…
Label: Rise Above Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram
Scribed by: David J McLaren
