Only in Dreams Dum Dum Girls

• 1Always Looking02:19
• 2Bedroom Eyes03:55
• 3Just a Creep02:56
• 4In My Head03:49
• 5Heartbeat (Take It Away)02:50
• 6Caught in One03:44
• 7Coming Down06:29
• 8Wasted Away03:39
• 9Teardrops on My Pillow02:49
• 10Hold Your Hand03:57
• Total Runtime36:27

Info for Only in Dreams

Auf verschiedenen Ebenen ist das zweite Album der Dum Dum Girls, “Only In Dreams”, ein Siebenmeilenschritt nach vorn für die talentierte Songschreiberin und ihre ebenso talentierte Band – das Album ist persönlich und bleibt in dieser Art von Musik ohne Gleichen.

Bandleader Dee Dee blickt zurück: „Auf der ersten Platte tauchten die ersten Songs auf, die ich jemals geschrieben hatte. Ich erinnerte mich nostalgisch daran zurück, wie ich ein Teenager war.“ Auf dieser Platte war es nahezu unmöglich, nicht über wirklich aktuelle, wirklich wahre Dinge zu schreiben. Sehr wahre Dinge: Dee Dee schrieb „Hold Your Hand“ direkt, nachdem ihre Mutter (die hübsche Lady auf dem Cover der Dum Dum Girls EP von 2009 und ihrem Debütalbum „I Will Be“ von 2010) mit einer unheilbaren Krankheit diagnostiziert wurde, die sich schließlich als tödlich erwies, und ist einer von vielen Songs auf „Only In Dreams“, die sich mit dem Verlust ihrer Mutter beschäftigen. Andere Songs widmen sich der emotionalen Belastung, die mit der räumlichen Trennung vom Liebhaber einher geht – etwas, das Dee Dee selbst betrifft, wenn sie und ihr Mann (Brandon Welchez von der Noisepop Band Crocodiles) nach verschiedenen Tourplänen leben.

„Only In Dream“ ist somit eine musikalische Weiterentwicklung für die Dum Dum Girls und eine persönlich für Dee Dee. Das Album löst die Versprechen ein, die die „He Gets Me High“-EP Anfang des Jahres machte. Der Mädchengang Eyeliner Punk der Shangri-Las und der trashige Vorwärtsdrang der Cramps ist noch immer genauso vorhanden wie die launische Atmosphäre von Mazzy Star, doch zum ersten Mal spielen und singen auf diesem Album alle vier Dum Dum Girls.

Während „I Will Be“ zu Hause aufgenommen und von der Poplegende Richard Gottehrer (Blondie, Go-Gos, The Raveonettes) produziert wurde, wagte sich „Only In Dreams“ in die Pink Duck Studios von Josh Homme. Wieder einmal produzierte Gottehrer, doch dieses Mal mit der Hilfe von Sune Rose Wagner von den Raveonettes.

„Wenn man bloß wüsste, was diese Songs im Paket doch zu einer recht modernen Pop-Platte machte, wäre man schlauer. Die Dum Dum Girls aber um ein Geheimnis ärmer.' (musikexpress)

'Only In Dreams' ist ein großer Schritt. Während beim Vorgänger die Sixties-Melodien nur schwer durch den Lärm drangen, sind Song und Feedback nun gleichberechtigt..' (Rolling Stone)

„Die weitere Evolution dieser Gruppe dürfte spannend werden.' (Good Times)

Dee-Dee, vocals, guitar
Bambi, vocals, bass
Sandy, drums, back vocals
Jules, vocals, guitar

Dum Dum Girls
Write about what you know. That’s what they say. But that’s a lot easier said than done when what you know is very, very difficult to bear. That was the challenge Dum Dum Girls’ leader Dee Dee faced when writing the songs for the band’s moving second album Only in Dreams. “The first record was basically the first songs I’d ever written,” says Dee Dee, “and I was thinking nostalgically about being a teenager. This record, it was pretty much impossible not to write about very recent, very real things.”

Very real things indeed: Dee Dee wrote “Hold Your Hand” immediately after her mother (the pretty lady on the cover of both the Dum Dum Girls’ self-titled 2009 debut EP and their 2010 debut album I Will Be) was diagnosed with what turned out to be a fatal illness, and it’s one of several songs on Only in Dreams that unsparingly trace her mom’s passing. Other songs spell out the emotional toll of separation from one’s lover, something Dee Dee had to deal with while she and her husband (Brandon Welchez of the acclaimed noise-pop band Crocodiles) pursued their own tour schedules.

“Just about all the songs reflect the fact that I’d been on the road for about a year, pretty much separate from everything real in my life except the band,” says Dee Dee. “A lot of it is about distance and detachment.”

On several levels, Only in Dreams is a great leap forward for a gifted songwriter and an equally gifted band—it’s heavy, deeply personal stuff and surely unprecedented for this style of music, and that’s what gives Only in Dreams both its uniqueness and its gut-punch emotional impact.

Only in Dreams retains Dum Dum Girls’ signature blend of the girl-gang eyeliner punk of the Shangri-Las, the trashy propulsion of the Cramps, and the moody atmospherics of Mazzy Star, but for the first time, all four Dum Dum Girls play and sing on the album. Now the harmonies have more depth, Jules plays her own distinctive guitar leads, and the Bambi (bass)/Sandy (drums) rhythm section powers the music like a vintage V-8 engine. Best of all, tons of time on the road— including two massively successful headlining tours—have molded Dum Dum Girls into a very formidable rock & roll band, giving the music an undeniable force.

And now that power and glory is showcased by a full-on studio production—while I Will Be was recorded at home and modestly spiffed up in a studio by legendary pop maestro Richard Gottehrer (Blondie, Go-Go’s), Only in Dreams was recorded at Josh Homme’s Pink Duck Studios, “almost a museum in terms of the old amps and guitars he’s amassed,” says Dee Dee admiringly. Gottehrer again produced, this time with Sune Rose Wagner from the Raveonettes.

Only in Dreams more than fulfills the promise of 2011′s He Gets Me High EP, with impassioned, front-and-center vocals from Dee Dee that sometimes recall one of her heroines, Chrissie Hynde; big singalong choruses draped with almost choral harmonies; a chugging wash of guitars drenched in reverb, tremelo and fuzz; and mighty, booming bass and drums. “I’ve always wanted to be in a loud rock & roll band and still maintain some feminine sound,” Dee Dee says. “So even though this album is much poppier and a lot more polished, it’s still tough.” “Heartbeat” hooks with its Buddy Holly-esque guitar line, while “In My Head” uncorks one of the album’s greatest choruses, and brace yourself for the incredibly poignant closer “Hold Your Hand.”

Listen to the slowdive ballad “Coming Down,” which Dee Dee wrote not long after her mom passed away. “That song came out of being in and out of awareness of the depth of the situation,” she says. “Sometimes when I write, I don’t really analyze what I’m saying but the more I hear that song, the deeper it feels. I don’t know if I’m addressing life or God or what, but it’s our big, epic song on every scale.”

Dee Dee wrote “Bedroom Eyes” after returning from a European tour, jet-lagged and lonely. “I was home alone,” she says. “Insomnia was taking its toll; I felt absolutely crazy. I looked up poetry on the subject and found a Dante Gabriel Rosetti poem and the song was born from that. I’d finally convinced my dad to give me one of his prescription sleeping pills and it kicked in while I was writing the song and I started hallucinating.”

Only in Dreams represents a musical evolution for Dum Dum Girls and a personal one for Dee Dee, and that’s no coincidence. “I’m for real,” she says. “We all are. I’m really passionate about this, it’s all I know. And maybe we’ve just grown up a bit—or grown out a bit. There’s some weight to what we do, and a pure intent, and I think that comes across on this album.”

This album contains no booklet.