Dum Dum Girls – I Will Be (2010) [Sub Pop] // Grade: A-

Somewhere out there is a solid line, a point of no return, at which all these reverb-soaked revivals and teenage endless summer bummers go from fuzzy, messy fun to genre-irritation supreme. Maybe we’ve already crossed it; did Vivian Girls do us in? Did you pale to the idea of Dum Dum Girls, dismissing that Captured Tracks EP as so same-old, same-old? Easy to do (see: the label, the associations, even the name), but a shame if you did—it wasn’t really the same thing then. And it’s definitely not the same thing now.

First, the references. DDG mastermind Dee Dee double-takes a lot of eras, but tiptoe back 10 years to indie-riot darlings The Rondelles; I Will Be is Shined Nickels and Loose Change for the modern set, all bratty energy and fierce devotion to 60s girl groups. It even winks at the Runaways in a similarly subtle way—but then, it also winks at the Jesus & Mary Chain, the Breeders and even Iggy Pop. Derivative? Not necessarily, but who cares if it is; the raw, unmitigated exuberance of tracks like “Oh Mein Me” and “Yours Alone” erases any concern from whence those songs came.

Then, the production. Lump ‘em in with that whole bedroom lot if you must, but DDG have Richard Gotteherer, and that’s a serious one-up. “My Boyfriend’s Back” and “I Want Candy”? He wrote those. Produced Blondie, the Voidoids and the Go-Gos too, and his work with Dee Dee & Co. is just as glittery, explosive and absolutely encompassing as anything he’s done before.

And really, that’s where I Will Be sidesteps the genre-irritation line—returns from that proverbial point of no return. DDG had the guts (and the vision) to slip off the shroud of reverb and come crawling from behind a faraway, lo-fi aesthetic. It’s just not their thing; such a balance of sheer, blistering power and saccharine girl-group harmonies isn’t fit to be disguised. Credit Gotteherer for sculpting that balance in the ideal way, but give DDG their due too; crossed line or no, I Will Be is so beyond associations alone.

- Rue Sauvage