The Dandy Warhols' last album, Welcome to the Monkey House, came on like the drunken friend who yanks you a little too hard onto the dance floor. All you had to do was loosen up a little to realize that the joyously retro '80s-pop bounce was good for you. This time around (fresh from way too much drooling hipster hype over the film Dig!), the Dandys take us on a more introspective journey. Fans partial to the band's most dirgey work, Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia, will feel at home with these new songs, which creep along at a snail's pace, without the rich, morose urgency of, say, "Nietzsche" or the playfulness of the car-commercial hit "Bohemian Like You." The Dandys should be applauded for taking the chance, but Odditorium doesn't seem to want to get up and go ... anywhere. Newcomers should start with the back catalog first.
