Let's Talk About Darwin Deez

As with so many bands, I have been vaguely aware of Darwin Deez for some time - ever since I heard 'Radar Detector' on Radio One a few years ago. I just never really did anything about listening to them properly because, well, it's not my kind of music. I'm into heavy stuff, and Darwin Deez is  . . . well it's so fucking light that the physical copies of their music probably have to be sellotaped down to stop them floating away.
Then, yesterday, I had the aforementioned Radar Detector going round my head for reasons unbeknownst to me, so I gave it a listen on Spotify. The next song started playing, and then the next, and the next . . .
I have to say, I was amazed. I wasn't expecting to like anything they've done because, as I say, it's not the kind of stuff I normally listen to.

It's not really like anything else I've heard, full stop. It's what I would presume most people would call a little bit psychedelic. It's all relaxing and floaty, there are nice echoing guitar noises and other things that sound a bit like guitars but not quite, the beat is never quite how you think it's going to be. Darwin has that sort of stereotypical American west-coast lazy drawl thing going on (despite being from New York City. I don't know, my accent placing is bad enough, and I make no claims to knowing anything about American geography), but not in an annoying way. You can get used to a song, but it'll suddenly do something you don't quite expect. Occasionally that's a little bit disconcerting, as in (800) HUMAN which kind of throws me off a bit, but it's done right often enough that you don't lose faith.
The lyrics are imaginative too, and I like a good lyric. They're songs about love and running about doing hipster things, but not in the boring kind of 'we hold hands and stand in book shops to look original' kind of way. They're strange and different, and the videos are kind of freaky as well - see You Can't Be My Girl. They cover all kinds of topics - not just love and the loss of it - but general grumpiness (Bad Day) and even suicide, in the eerily cheerful-sounding and aptly named The Suicide Song.

My favourite song, however, is definitely The Bomb Song. Although all of their songs conjure up images in my head, Darwin Deez have really outdone themselves with this one; I see a whole story playing out when I listen, and I love a good story about post-apocalyptic wastelands.


I don't care what kind of music you listen to, you should at least give them a try - like I said, I wasn't expecting to like them myself, and yet here I am.