American rock band, The New York Dolls, formed in 1971 in New York City and after a break up, they reformed in 2004 with three of the original members. Unfortunately, soon after, they lost bassist Arthur Kane to leukaemia. Two years later in 2006 Johansen and Sylvain reunited again where they recorded their third album, One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This.

The New York Dolls have teamed up with producer Todd Rundgren, again and are back to release their fourth album, ‘Cause I Sez So.

This album opens with a typical sounding rock track with ''Cause I Sez So'. It doesn’t stand out from any other rock band and to be honest it’s not the most impressive opening song on an album.

Johansen’s vocals reminded me of a ‘dad wanna-be rock star’ on karaoke, this is especially true on track 3, 'Better Than You'. There just isn’t any fire or passion in his voice, he sounded like he’d been at the whisky and cigars - not a good sound.

'Muddy Bones', is a slow paced rock/country song. It’s depressing beyond belief, there is nothing nice to listen to here. The vocals are gravelly and whiny, the melody in the chorus is annoying and even the guitars sound like they are whining.

Track 9, 'Drowning', is not too bad. The melody is good and guitar riffs match the feel of the song. I especially enjoyed the lead up to the ending, not least because I could feel it was coming to an end.

Track 10, 'Nobody Got No Bizness' is a cheesy rock track, filled with harmonicas. It just sounds like they are trying too hard to be young and hip in this track.

Track 11, 'Trash', has a reggae feel about it from the intro and chorus. In fact it sounds very much like a very famous song which name escapes me. I like this track, it’s light, upbeat and easy to listen to.

12, 'Exorcism of Despair', this is loud, dark and has massive guitar riffs and very noisy drums. Not my scene but I’m sure all the rock lovers out their will love it.

I feel this album is just full of cliché’s such as the gravelly voice, trashy lyrics and harmonicas. Maybe they are trying too hard to recreate what they had before, but it just isnt working.

Maybe New York Dolls shouldn’t have got back together for this fourth album. As they say, it’s always best to go out on a high, unfortunately, this album is very much a low for me.

2

Helena Rea