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Artist: The Dalloways

Album: Penalty Crusade

Publication: Indie Workshop

Category: Review

Writer: Mark Horan

Date: 10/04/2005

Website: http://indieworkshop.com/news/

Review Link: http://indieworkshop.com/music/2019/

You've got to love a guy who cites Nick Laird-Clowes (Dream Academy) as a primary songwriting influence. I mean, the guy wrote Life In A Northern Town, perhaps the finest song of the entire eighties-era. The man deserves his props. Gerhard Enns, singer/songwriter and leader of California's The Dalloways, is clearly smitten with Laird-Clowes' romantic chamber-pop style, as well as with fellow period Brits The Smiths and Prefab Sprout. Enns has fashioned a gorgeous album using these influences to guide him, and Penalty Crusade is an intoxicating mix of old and new styles that rarely fails to deliver something memorable.

The nice thing about Penalty Crusade is that it doesn't sound like a retro album, thanks to the beautiful production by Dalloways' drummer Aaron Wall and, most importantly, Enns' songs themselves, which share a lot in common with Josh Rouse. Both Rouse and Enns have mastered the poetic subtleness of delivering a bitter or acidic lyrical turn without ever losing the melodically smooth vibe of the music. That's a gift that not too many songwriters effectively possess or would even know how to use, and Enns displays it in bunches on Penalty Crusade.

How Can I Explain? is like a pocket symphony in it's use of a simple melody coupled with some beautiful strings played by the Jackson Tripper Quartet and a dynamically perfect and intricate production. Every turn of the track delivers something new to your ears, but with a subtleness that is characteristic of the entire album. I could say the same thing about Cotty's House, A Place To Call Our Home, or nearly any track on Penalty Crusade. It's that impressive.

Elected To Tell You is perhaps my favorite song on the album, if for no other reason than the opening few lines that Enns sings; "Everything's gone wrong today, and I was elected by the others to tell you, that you should get your tongue ripped out, eat your words and go to hell. God help you. But I still love you". Ouch.

If you've been in mourning ever since The Smiths broke up, then Penalty Crusade is the fix you've been searching for all these years. It's a perfect blend of style and substance that spins out a plethora of gorgeous, memorable pop moments. Superb.

- Mark Horan | 2005-10-04