Published on Aug 27, 2004
When I listen to albums like Baby Woodrose’s
Dropout!, I can’t help but feeling gut-checked back to the
realization that my fickle musical tastes sometime operate in too
small a box for my own good. While many bands record albums with
nothing but cover songs, as Baby Woodrose has done on
Dropout!, few pick out songs and bands as arcane as this
Danish rock trio.
As the story goes, Baby Woodrose recorded four of these songs a
couple of years ago while initially targeting their inclusion on
Bad Afro’s 2002 release of the band’s
Money For Soul album. The songs never made it to that
recording and in the time since, six other tracks were recorded and
included for next month’s (September, 2004) release of
Dropout!.
Paying homage to the original garage bands of the 60’s and 70’s,
Baby Woodrose has uncovered and placed their indelible stamp on a
slew of gem tracks such as the trance-ridden, plea forbidden “I
Lost You in My Mind” from Florida’s Painted Faces (think the Byrds)
and the acid-rocking, bass-driven “I Don’t Ever Want to Come Down”
by Texan’s Roky Erickson’s, 13th Floor Elevators.
Spanning further reaches of the western hemisphere,
Dropout! charts more gold with the psychedelic track, “The
World Ain’t Round, It’s Square” from what is believed to be the
Bermudan act the Savages. This song could have been a mistaken
staple for another contemporary band of the era in the Doors.
Lorenzo, Rocco and Riky Woodrose ease the track gracefully into the
new millennium never skipping a proverbial beat.
One of the few bands covered on this album that I have actually
heard of, the Saints, get their due as Baby Woodrose brings “This
Perfect Day” halfway around the world from where it was spawned
(Australia). The choppy intro to this song, bearing strong
resemblance to the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black,” has been
handled with more than sufficient care in preserving such a
comparison.
With no preconceived notions on how these songs are supposed to
sound, this album is a winner on several counts.
Dropout! impressively recreates the drug-addled, psychedeli-
laced sounds for which the Sixties will be forever remembered.
Secondly, I’m hit with further realization that it is going to take
more bands like Baby Woodrose performing textbook projects like
Dropout! to keep bands from rock n’ roll’s formative era of
the Sixties and Seventies from being forgotten.