The Dandy Warhols Are Sound

Background

Prior to the release of Welcome to the Monkey House, the band had been pressing for a version mixed by Elevado, whose credits include D'Angelo's Brown Sugar, The Roots' The Roots Come Alive, Common's Like Water for Chocolate and Alicia Keys' Songs in A Minor, among others. The Elevado mix of Monkey House was shelved by Capitol Records and an alternate mix by Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran was put out instead. Peter Holmstrom later said that Monkey House was not the version that he wanted released. In 2008, the band split from Capitol and formed their own label, Beat the World Records. With the band now on its own label, Holmstrom said the band decided the time was right to re-release the album's original mix.

As Courtney Taylor-Taylor describes it, "There are two different approaches to mixing. One is very slick and clean, and Welcome to the Monkey House fits more into that category. Are Sound, however, has a sneakier profile. It seems very lo-fi and earthy, but the fact is, it's extremely precise."

Track listing

All tracks written by Courtney Taylor-Taylor, except as noted.

Reception

The album received a lukewarm critical reception in comparison to Welcome to the Monkey House. Uncut magazine wrote, "an LP that once raved shamelessly now shuffles, twitchily." The A.V. Club, which praised Monkey House, called this mix "basically a tasteful killjoy. The bass is reduced to human levels, most of the synths are purged and the drums sound thin and trembly. The first Monkey House is full of consistently aggressive hook-mongering; this version is all deliberately becalmed jamming and repetition."