Sitting in a typical 95-degree-plus New York City Summer day, literally glued to a chair, reminiscing about the 1990s—a time belonging to the Summer, and artificial fog, ketamine-fueled boys and girls, Raves-In-Caves and the acid house movement—as the sticky, You Don’t Know What You’re Getting Yourself Into, the debut from British quartet Does It Offend You, Yeah? reverberates through a pair of cheap headphones, one can’t help but think that they’ve been inspired by said generation, except these dance kids are using real drums, keyboards and guitars, debauchery and all.
Does it Offend You, Yeah?, are a hybrid mix of dance and disco, bratty punk and ‘80s New Wave. While they share the ethos of punk’s aggressiveness and dance’s propulsive rhythms, their album is chock full of bombastic electro clashes and power chord driven electronic punk rock.
There is something almost painful when trying to warm up to a band like Does It Offend You, Yeah? The most obvious is their name: Does It Offend You, Yeah? Without actually experiencing the record, many keen musicphiles may associate their name with cheeky, irritating, generic punk bands like Cute is What We Aim For or The Mr. T. Experience, but just moments after DIOYY’s restive “Battle Royale” begins, a blend of cascading synths and house beats, the title could not become any clearer, You Don’t Know What You’re Getting Yourself Into.
Here, though, lies the problem. Not only doesn’t the listener know what they’re getting themselves into, but also, neither does the band. There is a glaringly obvious disconnect with the music of DIOYY because their music gravitates too much between various genres. Their sound is a confusing blend of Daft Punk, Justice, The Chemical Bros., Rage Against the Machine and Muse. And though they may intend to offend with their brand of cockney-electro-punk with laborious tracks and titles like “Let’s Make Out” and “Attack of the 60 Ft. Lesbian Octopus,” it unfortunately comes off as a campy export of what once was, especially when they rely on that as their only recipe. Where DIOYY shine most is during tracks like “Dawn Of The Dead” and “Epic Last Song,” which are cohesive compositions that infuse these two genres so well that it allows the quartet to showcase their more affected and pained personas, keeping the record from trailing off into the sweaty abyss of their stale new-rave sound.
You Don’t Know What You’re Getting Yourself Into is not a large and important work of art, it’s not immediate and it’s certainly not relevant, but there is nothing lackluster about it either. DIOYY are an enthusiastic and fresh bundle of dizzying energy. From start to finish, You Don’t Know What You’re Getting Yourself Into is fun. That’s it. You will eventually learn to love hating this album and hate loving its deliciously addictive energy. Either way, this is their first effort, and it could be interesting to see what comes of them.
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