For those few of you salivating for the follow-up to Dr. Dog's Easy Beat, the Philadelphia-based quintet has thrown you a bone. The six-song Takers and Leavers EP previews two tracks from the band's forthcoming as-yet-untitled album. Unsurprisingly, those two songs stand well above the other four for relative quality-- which isn't much of a compliment.
Dr. Dog lack the vision to synthesize their influences and create an inimitable sound of their own. On first listen, this can actually be a little alluring, playing name-that-influence for each song's constituent parts. But on repeated listens, Takers and Leavers sounds more and more like soulless construction masquerading as homage.
Take the EP's best track, "Ain't It Strange". It's a lo-fi 1970s radio pop amalgam, complete with the rollicking chords of a McCartney piano ballad, the jangle of Beach Boys' sleigh bells, and ELO-style backing vocals on the chorus. Even the lyrics sound phoned in: "Ain't it strange how everybody says I love you/ Ain't it a shame how a word can tell you more than words can say." It could be that the band strung together a series of clichéd one-liners while half-listening to soft rock radio. "Goner", also from the forthcoming album, is another piano-driven throwback with a more earnest vocal and beefier electric guitar leads. Both songs have their moments-- a multi-part harmony on "Ain't It Strange" and a lovely coda on "Goner" stand out-- but repeat listens merely make you crave the originals they conjure.
Unfortunately, the rest of the EP requires much more effort to wade through. "I've Just Got to Tell You" is a bouncy novelty full of hey-look-at-me goofs like "I'm always a'roamin'/ Even when I'm in Rome." If Dr. Dog's dreams about being the Beatles actually came true, Ringo would sing this one. "Die, Die, Die" is the band's comic death wish, opening with a jilted lover trying to chain-smoke himself to death. On "California", the band decides to explore some of the most bankrupt lyrical territory in all of pop music. Over acoustic guitar strums, the whole band harmonizes on lines like, "California/ Where the warm sun shines" and "The birds keep singing/ The bells keep ringing."
The EP picks itself up slightly with the closer, "Livin' a Dream", which is closer to the two opening tracks with its soaring harmonies and inevitable progressions. But while Dr. Dog may succeed in capturing some semblance of yesterday's styles, even the EP's strongest tracks lack enough inspired direction to contemplate Dr. Dog as their own band, distinct and separate from its glaring influences.
