When Dressy Bessy are good, Dressy Bessy are very, very good. They've excelled at the kind of head-bobbing tunes you'd expect from the Kindercore record label and, starting with their self-titled 2003 album, they also essayed the sort of enjoyable grrl-fronted rock that could fit right into a playlist between "Seether" and "Bright Yellow Gun". Throughout, Tammy Ealom's brash and giddy charm coupled with the group's way with a melody often won out over any objections. When they were not so good, Dressy Bessy exemplified what many would consider most obnoxious about both indiepop culture (the fetishistic and pointless appropriation of greasy kid stuff) and Ye Olde Elephant 6 collective (the fetishistic and pointless appropriation of 1960s psych-pop sounds and signifiers). But if the group could be accused of rubbing their pigtails in everyone's faces, even the grumpiest Gus would at the very least begrudge them their often inescapable hooks.
But that would be before the group's latest album, Holler and Stomp. It's a 13-song journey through a world where Dressy Bessy turns themselves into everything critics thought they were-- amateurish, tuneless, puerile, purveyors of the sort of "catchy" songs that spring the CDC into action. It's as if the group chose to stoop to and limbo beneath the subterranean lows established by the awful cover portrait (with all due apologies to fans of the "airbrushed street scene festooned with MS Paint graffiti and Oscar the Grouch trash cans" school of artistry). Some might be more generous, but there are only two tunes that stand out from this mess for their non-awfulness. The album's nominal single, "Simple Girlz", features a sassy multi-tracked Ealom kicking up her walking boots in the general direction of shiftless dudes looking for easy breezy ladyfriends. The other track is "Left to the Right", a stop-start number where Dressy Bessy, which to this point of the album comes off as existing somewhere between "listless" and "inert," sound like they're actually enjoying what they're playing. There's more than a bit of irony to be had, though, with Ealom repeatedly singing the line "Gimme something to sing" in a song that's all the better for keeping her singing to a minimum.
Even the most casual listener would notice a change between Ealom's voice over the years-- her girlish chirp from the group's early days has developed a little husk and heft, making her sound not unlike Kim or Kelley Deal. On most of Holler and Stomp, unfortunately, she sounds like a Deal sister looking for a melody and a paper sack. It's bad enough that the songs, separate from the vocals, are pretty weak-- if the tunes on turds like "Ease Me Down" or "Anyone Can See" aren't bad enough, the use of cheesy Casio trumpets (on the former) or a rinky-dink drum machine (on the latter) make sure this shit stinks. Then Ealom shows up, slightly out of step with the songs in question, singing melodies she's seemingly forgotten tied to lyrics that are best left forgotten. Her performances comes off as awkward karaoke, and it's even worse when it comes on songs like "Automatic" or "Sindy Says" that superficially resemble what the group's done in the past (and done better). If the future promises to bring more moments where Tammy Ealom croaks "I want to steal your candy" like a nic-fitted Wicked Witch, then it's probably time for folks to stow Dressy Bessy in the attic.
