Dum Dum Girls - Too True

The third album from Dum Dum Girls sees vocalist and songwriter Dee Dee Penny trying to realise her aim of “chasing pop into the dark”. The result is an album that sounds like a pastiche of some great alternative ’80s bands, with snatches of The Cure, Siouxsie Sioux, The Bangles and even The Cult peeping out from under heavy chords and even heavier eye-liner.

When it works, it’s great. Opener ‘Cult Of Love’ blends Robert Smith-esque soundscapes with Tex Mex guitars. ‘In The Wake Of You’ is all galloping drums, chiming guitars, catchy chorus and sun-kissed melody, while the searing ‘Lost Boys And Girls Club’ is built on foundations of swirling guitars and rumbling bass that could have come from Disintegration.

Most of the 10 tracks weigh in at less than three minutes, providing a short sharp goth-pop shock, with only the closing ‘Trouble Is My Name’ hitting the epic four-minute mark. It all gets a little samey, however, and it sounds like Dee Dee is in thrall to her influences. Her lyrics are unlikely to see Dee Dee lifting any songwriting awards. The Cult-ish ‘Rimbaud Eyes’, for example, comes on strong with big, bold drums and swathes of guitars, but lyrically it reads like Twilight-loving teenage poetry, with Penny intoning how she is “a boat, lost under blue/ Am hurled by hurricanes into birdless ether, into forever blue.”

When she forgets libertine French poets and concentrates on her own emotions, she’s capable of penning a decent tune: on the bittersweet balladry of ‘Are You Okay?’, the layers of backing vocals call to mind the great Fleetwood Mac (yes it’s that good).

In sum, Too True is a decent album from a talented lady – but one who needs to find her own voice if she’s really going to join the ranks of those she emulates.