Regrouped, refreshed, and financially on the mend thanks to the benevolent wallets of fans instead of A&M, Dodgy let loose the sound Real Estate, their fifth album of British Invasion-styled good spirit, in the middle of a British summer stocked with perpetually dour singer/songwriters and an odd... [+] Expand

Regrouped, refreshed, and financially on the mend thanks to the benevolent wallets of fans instead of A&M, Dodgy let loose the sound Real Estate, their fifth album of British Invasion-styled good spirit, in the middle of a British summer stocked with perpetually dour singer/songwriters and an odd journalistic obsession with New York City's the Strokes. But if the band had troubles landing a deal after the trappings of Brit-pop lashed back, a situation worsened by a premature and misleading greatest hits album, Ace A's & Killer B's, and the unfortunate departure of longtime lead singer Nigel Clarke, they barely let you know. There is a crudely unfastened self-justification about songs like "Clean" and "Featherweight & Monkeyface." With David Bassey's new vocals, the band has grown around the petulant working-class rasp of Kelly Jones or a young Rod Stewart, diverging from the bright pop froth of its past, and for the first time the band sounds blurred around the edges as if intoxicated on their own indolent personalities. Alternately, "Shouldn't Wear Shorts" is unplugged Black Grape in the most terrible way but, like Shed Seven's Truth Be Told or Echobelly's People Are Expensive, Real Estate is the consequence of subverting dwindling crowds and a dismissive press for the good of those charitable few who chose to see how it all turned out. ~ Dean Carlson, All Music Guide [-] Collapse

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