• POP/ROCK

THE DANDY WARHOLS

... Earth to the Dandy Warhols ...

Beat the World Records

***

Like the Pop Art legend who inspired their name, the Dandy Warhols are at their best when borrowing from the hipster world in which they're fully immersed. Past alt-rock hits Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth, Cool as Kim Deal and the swaggering, Stones-y blues of Bohemian Like You (which has now become ubiquitous, thanks to those Ford commercials) all create who-does-that-sound-like moments.

... Earth to the Dandy Warhols ..., the Portland group's eighth studio album, is no exception: It's a wildly eclectic effort, influenced by seemingly every rock genre from the past 40 years.

The journey begins with The World the People Together (Come On), whose lively, spacey rock blends well with Courtney Taylor-Taylor's appealingly murky vocals. It blatantly borrows from two disparate icons -- the descending melody from Donna Summer's I Feel Love, and an echo of The Beatles' The End (''The love that you give is exactly the love that you do take'') -- but somehow sounds fresh. B'52s-esque electro party rock drives the two-minute Mission Control, while Welcome to the Third World's new wave funk recalls Duran Duran and Prince and Talk Radio steals the guitar riff from Love & Rockets' No New Tale to Tell.

But the Dandies are equally adept at stoner rock, with the grinding, psychedelic swirls Wasp in the Lotus and And Then I Dreamt of Yes setting us up for the bouncy, '60s singalong Mis Amigos (which you can imagine the Brady kids bopping to, if it weren't for the rampant marijuana references) and the mesmerizing Valerie Yum, an amusing if overlong ode to Valium.

The bulk of ... Earth to the Dandy Warhols ... is either derivative or meandering, but its overall hypnotic effect is so sonically pleasing it's best to simply sit back and enjoy the ride.

Pod Picks: Valerie Yum, Mis Amigos, The World the People Together (Come On)

-- MICHAEL HAMERSLY

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