It’s hard to believe, but with the 2007 re-release of the self-titled Dirty Three album, it has been 13 years since it’s original release date. To appropriately review a 13-year-old record from such an influential and uncompromising band such as the Dirty Three, we must forget what we know. We must live in a past where few are aware that the band is a three-piece instrumental, folk-rock band that creates heartbreaking and heartwarming ditties that are packed with fervent emotion. We must ignore the amazing Whatever You Love You Are from 2000. We must forget solo albums and Bad Seeds collaborations. We must not remember that they would eventually add guest vocals to their sound in late 2005. We must erase the current stint with Grinderman and their trademark violin echo. So, even though you have now been reminded, we forget.
Step into my time machine, friends…
It is 1994, Kurt Cobain is dead, rock music is in peril and three dudes named Warren Ellis, Mick Turner and Jim White aren’t paying much attention. They are busy preparing for the follow-up to their debut album, Sad and Dangerous-an appropriately titled release that had music critics and snobs abuzz. The 7-song, sophomore record is released to the public late in the year.
The buzz continues. You purchase the album. You listen.
The LP starts off with the tapping percussion and low plucking of strings on “Indian Love Song”. The track builds somewhat slowly, but suddenly, the song veers off and is filled in with buzzing guitars, moody harmonica and the screeching of Warren Ellis’s violin. Only during the quieter moments of the song do things not seem overcrowded and obnoxious. Timing in at over 10 minutes it offers almost no hint of what the band strong points are. Yet something-maybe it’s that inkling during the calmer moments or maybe it’s the bands keen musicianship-keeps you on board for the next track. If this was the first Dirty Three track you ever heard, you may have been misled. But do not lose hope.
On song two, the gorgeous “Better Go Home” things start to turn in the bands favor. Ellis’s violin opens the song with a melody that shakes with despair. One can almost picture a regretful husband crawling back to his family after a night in a sleazy motel. This is where the band works best-tragic violin and melancholic rhythms. From this track through track six the band seems to transform into instrumental storytellers.
The highlight of the album is undoubtedly “Everything’s Fucked”. With a crushing lead violin and an almost trembling beat, it is a powerfully painful song with a veiled hopefulness. Imagine a woman on the top of a skyscraper, ready to jump. Envision that woman thinking it through and decidedly taking the stairs down to safety. She has not forgotten her sorrow, but simply embraced it. Incorporating imagery like this is a Dirty Three specialty.
Unfortunately, on the final track, “Dirty Equation” the band returns to the louder, confused sound that opened the album. With piercing feedback and distortion, it seems they attempt to avoid embracing their originality. But remember, this is a young band, still learning their strengths and weaknesses.
Returning to good ol’ 2007, we find it would take almost no time at all for the band to realize what they do best. The follow-up to this album was the classic Horse Stories where the band focused and honed their distinctive sound.
Overall, the album speaks loud and clear as to what the future would hold-a mellow folk-rock band that will have it’s own novel sounds to share with the world.
So, be it 2007 or 1994, this album is as good as a stepping-stone, created so that the band could progress. But it is also a solid record on it’s own, an offspring of passion and desire.
The Dirty Three, dirty for 13 years running. Hopefully they never clean up.
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