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This disc from Denver's Dressy Bessy came out earlier this year, and here in the waning months of 2005 it's still holding up as one of the year's finer pop albums. Vocalist Tammy Ealom opens the disc with a staccato "Hey!" and, now that she's got your attention, the band isn't going to let go for 41 minutes. It's super-hooky, riff-based pop that's tough, smart, and catchy as hell. It's full of crunchy distorted guitar, and the rhythm section is super-tight. You'll find some other sounds too, like the retro organ bloops on the track "Call It Even Later." It's mostly hard-and-fast, although there are a couple of midtempo tracks that have a bit of a countryish flavor. Several of the songs have stop-start rhythms which mesh well with Ealom's clipped vocal phrasing, and she gets good mileage out of repetitive vocal riffs, which you can tell just from some of the song titles: "HelloHelloHello," "RingAlingAling," and "Try Try Try Again." Ealom has a gritty, tobacco-stained rasp not unlike Kim Deal, and "HelloHelloHello" features some vocal "ohs" very much like The Breeders' "Doe." This is a great rocking-out record—it's pure pop through and through, but it's never lightweight or bubblegummy. On a packaging note, this is the first commercial CD I've seen to use a black plastic disc, and it's printed to look like a vinyl record, with faux "grooves" and everything. Sweet! (mike.11.05)
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