DODOS - Certainty Waves

Meric Long and Logan Kroeber call it their midlife-crisis record, and looking at the process that led to the release of "Certainty Waves", it's hard to argue too much. Tired of the clichés tied to their aesthetic and instrumental setup, and eager to rediscover the freedom from assumptions and preconceptions that had accompanied the release of "Visiter", the Dodos decided it was time to dust off the album that put them in the spotlight (now celebrating its tenth anniversary on the dot) and re-examine its energy, its freshness, its contagious dynamism. The revisit proved providential, allowing the duo to rethink their creative process and act with greater impulsiveness, without too much anxiety over the final result.

By injecting large doses of electricity back into a compositional and instrumental framework that's by now well road-tested, the band explores its rediscovered instinctiveness to the fullest, across nine tracks of gritty (math-)folk-rock that won't offer anything strictly new, but that nonetheless present a band finally freed from self-imposed pressures and obligations. On their seventh album, there couldn't be a more fitting moment for such self-awareness.

While it's true that the new approach clearly translates into a more energetic and vital feel to the songs (which, given the duo's stylistic habits, is saying something), their aesthetic remains as recognizable as ever, by now a genuine trademark. Anyone hoping for a shift in perspective will come away disappointed, then, since the nine tracks of "Certainty Waves", beyond the beefed-up electric side, offer very few signs of substantial renewal. That doesn't mean the album lacks interest, though - at times the songwriting clicks into place in a way it hasn't since the days of "No Color".

Even though the tone of the melodies perhaps comes across, maybe even deliberately, as slightly more subdued than in the past (likely a reflection of Meric Long's life experiences), the songwriting flows with good cohesion, moving nimbly between different moods and forms. Beyond the more familiar math-tinged geometries, the duo's actual trademark (the hyperkinetic drumming of "IF", with its faint funky undertones, the broken refrain of the more finely chiseled "SW3"), the music also knows how to settle down when needed, giving the writing extra room to breathe through tracks that, in other hands, would almost pass as ballads.

Even amid the guitar-and-synth exuberance that fills the record, the more "traditional" soul of Dodos still manages to surface - the one capable of pulling a little melodic gem of dreamy folk like "Excess" out of the hat, as well as the more settled forms of "Center Of", where the shape of the vocal line reveals real emotional engagement. There are a few minor rough edges overall, a few flat spots that narrowly avoid self-imitation, but on the whole Long and Kroeber move forward with enough skill toward a rediscovered creative spark, the pleasure of writing and playing without pressures or "duties" of any kind. "Individ" pointed the way, and "Certainty Waves" clearly confirms that path: with just a bit more willingness to take risks, Dodos could still land another great album.

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20/10/2018