Dntel Dumb Luck by: Daniel Grimsey Mon:07-May-07 Label: Sub Pop Year: 2007 WB rating 48 out of 100

Dntel is Jimmy Tamborello. That’s one half of The Postal Service. You love them because you’ve danced and fallen in love with girls/boys whenever ‘Such Great Heights’ gets given a spin. That was released four years ago and indie kids around the world still go crazy for it.

This album is nothing like that. You see, The Postal Service has two halves. One half writes melancholy pop songs, the other creates crazy synth-pop beats; built for dancing. Dntel is made out of the later half; that of the crazy beats.

The Postal Service album was of course, absolutely huge, and Dntel does lyrically refer to Jimmy’s new found ‘fame’ in the title track, where he sings – or more accurately mumbles – “don’t forget that it’s dumb luck that got you here”, partially admitting that if it wasn’t for his more successful side project, it’s unlikely that he’d now find himself with an audience that extends outside of the electro-ambient clique.

Using this lyric as the opening line should also serve to warn listeners that this album was not designed to be a pop classic. The fact that Dumb Luck begins with the sound of a tape being chewed up, should also be a hint. This sound effect serves a multi-functional purpose however, introducing a game which should hopefully make listening to Dumb Luck a more enjoyable experience. When listening to this album, particularly the first time, when it is likely to feel like an incomprehensible mish-mash of both beautiful and ugly sounds, it helps to pass the time playing ‘secret sound.’ As in what is that sound effect supposed to be? Is it a volcano erupting? Is it a horse neighing? Is it a giant robot dragging his feet as he stumbles up a mountain?

Like Dntel’s previous album Life Is Full of Possibilities, this album is big on guest vocalists; but not for any cross-promotional marketing purposes, since Mia Doi Todd and Lali Puna are not artists with a great deal of pulling power. These guest vocalists give the album the sound and feel of a compilation album; linked but not homogenous, a tendency to be eerily beautiful, but at the same time, incapable of discernibly catchy melodies.

The range of guest vocalists on Dumb Luck ensures that the album references styles as varied as country to sexy soul ballads. ‘I’d Like To Know’, for example, has more mood changes than ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, starting off as a sweet duet between lovers seducing each other over a game of Pong, before floating off to more beautiful places, all green pastures and snow capped mountains, before inexplicably ending up in the mosh pit at a heavy metal concert. ‘The Distance’ comes across as a campfire sing-a-long, with Jeff Buckley styled heart-breaking chord progressions and xylophones seemingly supplied by Architecture In Helsinki. ‘Rock My Boat’ goes all sexy, providing background music for computer nerds to get it on to mixed with a post-apocalyptic scene in a sci-fi movie.

However, despite all these stylistic changes, Dumb Luck does not come across as a diverse album. As although Jimmy has a computer which can create any sound imaginable, he too often goes straight to the default option, which tends to be the static button. Still, regardless of whether it is static, the sound of a bulldozer, the sound of thunder storm approaching, or the sound of a vintage Atari, the synth noises are the stars of the show, squeezing out the human guests.

There are two exceptions to this rule, and they both have something important, and not particularly complimentary, in common. They feature less input from Jimmy’s robot minions, who stay out of the way, thereby allowing his guest stars to do their thing. And as a general rule in this album, less of Jimmy is a good thing.

Jenny Lewis from Rilo Kiley delivers ‘Roll On’ a sweet little number that could have been a little hit back in the mid ‘90’s days of Lisa Loeb and 4 Non Blondes. Jenny wrote it; she sings it. Clearly Jimmy has to do something to justify it even being on his album. So he destroys it. As a result it sounds as though he’s driving down Route 66 and having trouble with the reception on a Country-and-Western radio station.

There’s a pretty song underneath all that static. With most of the other songs, you don’t mind so much, since although vaguely irritating the twisted sound effects are still much more interesting than the songs underneath. But ‘Roll On’ is actually a simple pretty pop song, by a crush-worthy girl with a sweet and charming voice, opening her heart to the audience, telling them some quite personal stuff, and being interrupted by some arrogant computer who thinks he’s more interesting. The result: a battle between human and the machine.

In polite circles, a person might try to soften the blow on Jimmy – and since he’s clearly a mopey fellow, it mightn’t be a bad idea – by saying that Dumb Luck is a grower. Maybe it is; however, on the first several listens, it’s largely meandering noise and it would take a heart full of patience to sit through it too many times.