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New Music: The Old 97s: "Dance With Me" [Stream]

The Olds lived up (or down) to their name on their previous album, the tired Drag It Up, and Rhett Miller's solo career was a nonstarter, but they sound rejuvenated on "Dance with Me", their best single in years. Maybe it's the location: The band recorded their seventh album, Blame It on Gravity (forthcoming on New West in May, with an atrocious album cover), in their hometown of Dallas and corralled local producer/performer Salim Nourallah to produce. Their stomachs full of barbecue brisket and Shiner Bock, the band returns to the dustier sound of Wreck Your Life on "Dance with Me", which sports Ken Bethea's flamenco-inspired guitar work and Miller's smart-ass lyrics about a girl with "your flip-flop smile and your big blue eyes on vacation." She's dancing to a bar band playing "Everybody Wants You", perhaps one drink away from Girls Gone Wild, as Miller sings the chorus as a conspiracy: "Do? You? Want? To? Dance? With? Me?" There is a sense of danger in Miller's lyrics, which has been missing in the Old 97s' music since at least Satellite Rides. It may only be the danger of next-morning regrets, but the band make them sound big as Texas.

Stream:> The Old 97s: "Dance With Me"
[from Blame It on Gravity; due 05/18/08 from New West]

Posted by Stephen M. Deusner on Tue: 03-25-08: 08:00 AM CDT | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us | Permalink
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