Now for something a bit Rock n' Roll. It was a hard decision on which of my "D" bands to listen to first, but I thought I'd begin with this fun Danish act. They began performing in the early 1980s under the name "Disneyland After Dark" but that ultimately resulted in the threat of a law suit, and thus they switched to D.A.D, because if there's one thing you don't want, it's to be sued by one of the richest companies in the world. Despite being around for ten years, it took a while for them to find their way onto the international market and I discovered them in the early 90s, when I purchased a sampler cassette with a couple of their tracks on it.
The CD begins with the rockin' "Bad Craziness" with its catchy chorus, bombastic stylings and all out, a flavour of fun. We are then treated to "D Law" which stands for "Disneyland Law", in case you didn't guess.
"Day of Wrong Moves" follows that up, moving into "Rock 'n' Rock Radar" which is a catchy, rockabily number.
"I Won't Cut My Hair" is one of my favourites, with its ridiculous lyrics and, at times, frantic insistence that "...I won't cut my hair, cos I'm proud of my hair..." Vocalist Jesper Binzer insists that he will never cut his hair, even now - it's the name of his biography.
"Down that Dusty 3rd World Road" is a more mellow number, with almost country rock elements. It rather makes me think of American deserts, for some reason.
We're back into the rock n' roll with the rather amusing "Makin' Fun of Money".
"Grow or Pay" is a rather less cheerful number, heading towards ballad terrain, and Jesper Binzer's voice is raw with emotion and tinged with a little desperation.
The country-ish feel is back in "Smart Boy Can't Tell You."
We become a little more frantic in "Riskin' it All" before concluding with my favourite track, the rather beautiful "Laugh n' a Half". The first chords stir something in me. Maybe it's memories - this is one song that I distinctly recall from my youth - when I first heard it on a ballad album that a friend of mine owned (along with Return's wonderfully emotional "Bye Bye Johnny" one of the finest ballads ever). Whatever the reason, it's a worthy way to end the CD.
D.A.D have been around a LONG time - since 1982, and have changed their line-up very little. They have great acclaim in their home country, Denmark, but never seem to have entirely taken off on the international scene. This is strange, given that, in my opinion, their sound has an almost American feel with aspects of country mixed with rock n' roll. According to wikipedia, they began in 1982 to thumb their noses at the negativity of punk music - calling their style "cowpunk". And, since their emblem is a bull skull with long horns, one cannot but feel that they wanna be cowboys. They do a bitchin' cover of "Horse with No Name" too. Why they never made it big in the US I cannot understand - maybe because they refuse to take themselves seriously - and of course, are up against some steep competition.
This is a decent album, I do not think it is quite as catchy as "No Fuel Left for the Pilgrims", but enjoy it more than "Helpyourselfish" which are the full collection of D.A.D albums that I own (and one is on cassette tape). They have 11 albums in total.
I rate this one = 7/10
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